Kitsune of Las Noches
by Rocker1600
Summary: Naruto is taken to train with all ten Espada and returns to Konoha seven years later. What will our hero be like after this immense training? Originally owned by jmac615; now under new management.
1. New Owner Update

Hey guys. So, Rocker1600 has offered to take on the story Kitsune of Las Noches. I have decided to give it to him and trust him to make it a great story. I decided that you guys have waited long enough for an update, and if he can give it to you when I can't, then more power to him. Sorry for those who I let down, and good luck Rocker1600 I'll be watching.

-jmac615


	2. 1 A Hollow Beginning

A/N: Hey guys, I'm Rocker1600, the new owner of this story. Before I say anything, I want everyone to know that I've kept the previous chapters intact (save for parts of chapter 11). I intend to keep the story true to its roots to the best of my abilities. I hope you keep reading and reviewing this story. I thank jmac615 for giving me the opportunity to finish this story; I promise to not let you down.

**Chapter 1- A Hollow Beginning**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Bleach.

[Aizen's Throne Room, Las Noches, Hueco Mundo]

Aizen sat in his throne watching a projection of another world; what he was witnessing intrigued him. A large mob of people was currently chasing a small blonde headed child, no older than six years old. The people kept calling him a demon; in addition to the immense amount of spiritual pressure emanating from the boy, Aizen sensed something even stronger sealed away, most likely the source of the mob's catcalls. Aizen immediately called for Gin and Tousen.

"What is it, Aizen-sama?" Gin asked grinning his fox-like grin as usual.

"This boy here, Naruto Uzumaki, is very powerful. I want you to bring him here so that he can be trained by the Espada," Aizen said as he looked back at the image and saw that the boy had tripped and was about to be beaten by the mob.

"As you wish, Aizen-sama," Tosen said as he and Gin turned and left.

Aizen now had a wide smile on his face.

[Somewhere in Konohagakure]

Naruto was on the ground trying to back away from the mob. The people in the mob were wielding only knives and lights but, unfortunately for Naruto, that was all the mob needed.

"Now we will vanquish this demon from our land," the leader of the mob said as the rest of the mob cheered in approval.

"I'm not a demon! Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked as the mob closed in on him.

"Now we get out revenge," the leader said as he brought his knife down on the boy. Naruto closed his eyes as he prepared to meet his end; fortunately for the him, and the shinobi world, it never came.

"Shoot to kill, Shinso!" an unfamiliar voice said.

Naruto opened his eyes and saw that a very long sword had pierced the leader. He turned to see its wielder; it was a man with white hair, squinty eyes, and a wide smile. He was wielding the blade that had saved Naruo's life; it had been extended to a ridiculous length, allowing the sword to reach the mob leader. The white-haired man stood next to a black man with purple hair and some sort of visor on his eyes; Naruto could still see that the man's eyes had no pupils, however, giving the impression that he was blind.

"Wha-what the?" Naruto stuttered as the two men walked closer to him.

"My, my that was a close one," the white haired man said.

"Who are you and why did you save the demon?" one of the people in the mob asked as the white haired man looked at him in confusion.

"Huh, demon? If you mean this kid here then your eyes are even worse than Tosen's and he's actually blind," said the white haired man as the black man, Tosen, just looked at him with a scowl.

"If you're here to help the demon, then you'll die with him," another member of the mob said as they charged at Naruto and the two strangers.

The white haired man quickly grabbed Naruto and leapt back while Tosen jumped into the air.

"Suzumushi Nishiki: Benihiko," Tosen said as he made a circle around him from the top to bottom with his sword.

When he had finished his motion multiple blades came out of nowhere and rained down on the mob; the entire mob was slaughtered in an instant.

Naruto was amazed by such a technique and wished to learn more.

"What do you want with me?" Naruto asked as the white haired man gently put him down.

"Let's start with introductions first. I am Gin, and this Tousen. We came from a place called Hueco Mundo and we're here to take you back with us to be trained," Gin replied as Naruto just looked at him, shocked at the news.

"Train me! Why?" Naruto asked, wondering why anyone would want to train him.

"Because, our master, Aizen, believes that you are strong, and now that we're closer, I can sense that you do indeed have much strength," Tosen said; he had sensed Naruto's strength the moment he laid eyes on him, so to speak.

"Will I be leaving forever?" Naruto asked; while he may have disliked like the villagers Naruto still had friends in the village.

"It all depends on what Aizen-sama has planned. Will you some with us, please?" Gin asked while extending his hand, which Naruto took.

Before they could depart, however, they were stopped by the arrival of the Third Hokage and a few Anbu Black Ops members.

"Hold it right there. Where are you taking Naruto?" the hokage asked as his anbu prepared to attack the two strangers.

"We are taking Naruto to a place to be trained so he can stand up to the nutjobs, like these fools, in your village. And before you think that were kidnapping him, you should know that he chose to come with us on his own accord," Gin said as the hokage looked at him in shock.

"What?! Naruto is this true?" the hokage asked to which Naruto just nodded.

"Don't worry, Naruto will return; just not for a while," Gin said with a smile.

"Very well, if Naruto is going out of his free will, then I'll allow it; just promise me, however, that he will return," Sarutobi said; he ordered the Anbu to stand down when Gin and Tosen nodded in reply.

The two Shinigami then turned around and opened a Garganta and walked through it, with Naruto in tow, before the portal slammed shut.

'Be safe, Naruto' Sarutobi thought to himself as he and his anbu disappeared.

[Aizen's Throne Room, Las Noches, Hueco Mundo]

Naruto looked in awe at the massive castle/fortress he was now inside . Gin and Tosen led him into a huge room, the throne room from what Naruto could tell, where a man was seated on a throne on the opposite side of the room. The man had a white outfit on and had brown slicked back hair.

"Welcome, Naruto. I am Sosuke Aizen, the one who sent Gin and Tosen to retrieve you," Aizen said as Gin and Tosen brought Naruto closer to Aizen, who decided to get up and walk to meet his newest acquisition. Naruto bowed respectfully to the man.

"Are you going to be the one training me?" Naruto asked as Aizen smiled gently at him.

"No, I will have you trained by the Espada, ten warriors who are my strongest force," Aizen said; Naruto was surprised to hear that he was going to have ten different teachers.

Naruto was startled by the opening of another huge door from which ten figures stepped out. The first guy was big and muscular with a tan and a ponytail. The only guy wearing a helmet made bubbling noise and had a popped collar. There was man with pink hair had glasses on who had a thin body. The only black member was bald had some spikes on his head. The guy next to him had a jaw on the right side of his face as well as blue hair. There was another guy whose outfit made him look like a giant spoon and who wielded a huge misshapen scythe. The palest member had green eyes black hair, and teal-colored marks that looked like tears. The only woman in the group had blonde hair blue eyes and had her face covered. There was an old man who had one eye closed and was wearing some sort of crown. The final member had a lazy look in his eyes and brown hair. The guys must be the Espada.

"Is that them?" Naruto asked as he looked back at Aizen.

"Yes, but training can wait until tomorrow. Why don't you go with Gin to your room," Aizen said. Naruto nodded in reply and began walking with Gin before he suddenly stopped.

"Hey, um, I have a quick question. Will I be able to go home when my training is done?" Naruto asked while Aizen still smiled at him.

"Yes, you are free to go when your training in Las Noches is done," Aizen said as Naruto smile and left to rest.

"Are you really going to let him leave?" Tosen asked as Aizen turned to look at him.

"Yes, after we've taken the soul society and the real world, we will take over his world, with him as the main weapon," Aizen said to his subordinate as he sprouted a wide smile.

If only he knew what happened in the future.

_7 Years Later..._

Naruto sat atop a tower in Hueco Mundo staring out at the massive desert. He had on a white jacket and black shirt underneath, along with black pants and sandals. He had his zanpakuto, which was a blade with black hilt with red wrappings around it and a red, round, spiral pattern tsuba (A/N: the tsube looks like the Uzumaki Clan Symbol). Naruto had gotten strong enough to beat all ten espada in both their regular forms and their released forms. Since he trained with the arrancars, he had obtained a release for his zanpakuto as well. On top of that, he also got two fracciones named Jango and Tiraran. Now, with his training complete, Naruto set his sights on a new objective.

"Ready or not Konoha, here come Naruto Uzumaki!" said Naruto as he left to have a final talk with Aizen.

Next Time – Departure and Return


	3. 2 Departure and Return

**Chapter 2- Departure and Return**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Bleach.

[Las Noches, Hueco Mundo]

Naruto used a Flash Step to get to Aizen's stronghold. Naruto had gotten the abilities of a Shinigami, but didn't have a Shikai or Bankai. Thanks to Aizen, the Kyubi had been re-sealed inside Naruto's blade, hence him having a release; this made his zanpakuto more Arrancar-like in how it was used. Since the Tailed Beast was still connected to his soul, Naruto still had thehealing abilities that the Kyubi provided. Naruto's training also resulted in him gaining several hollow abilities, though without the need for an inner hollow to use them.

Naruto entered the center of Las Noches and decided to head to his room one last time. When he got there he saw some new clothes on his bed. A note was attached to it.

_Dear Naruto,_

_I thought you might like some new clothes considering your leaving soon. This should be appropriate for you big return. Enjoy._

_Signed, _

_Aizen_

Naruto smiled at the note and put on the clothes. There was a shirt similar to Grimmjow's, but it had short sleeves instead of the long sleeves that the Sixth Espada rolled up. The pants were white and baggy with black trim. His sandals were Espada edition sandals, and he had white forearm gauntlets on his arms that had skulls in the middle; the outfit also icluded a pair of spaulders with a similar design. Naruto took a look at himself in the mirror after trying out his new outfit before going to Aizen's throne room. Naruto walked inside but found that Aizen was not at his throne. Rather than going out and looking for him, Naruto decided to wait for him. He was in no hurry to get back, and wanted to at least talk one last time with the Espada. Speaking of the Espada, Grimmjow had just walked into the throne room.

"How are you, Grimmjow-sama?" Naruto asked as his teacher looked at him and gave his usual grin.

"Bored as hell. What are you doing?" Grimmjow asked he sat next to Naruto.

"Just waiting for Aizen-sama. I need to discuss my departure with him," Naruto said as Grimmjow looked at him with a surprised expression.

"Is it time already?" Grimmjow asked, to which Naruto nodded in reply.

"Yea, it's been a while since I began my training. If my math is correct, it should be seven years passed in my world. I can't wait," Naruto said as he sported his trademark grin.

"I like that look in your eye," Grimmjow said as he smiled. Naruto gave a small chuckle.

"I'm just pumped is all. There are some people I've been dying to see," Naruto said before Grimmjow flashed a sleazy look.

"Oh? You mean like a girl?" Grimmjow asked in a mocking tone; Naruto, not surprisingly, got steamed at him.

"Shut up Grimmjow-sama!" Naruto yelled as Grimmjow laughed at him.

"I thought I heard some sort of commotion," another person said; Naruto immediately recognized that voice thanks to its lazy tone.

"So you actually decided to wake up, Starrk-sama," Naruto said, as Starrk just looked at him with his laziness still present in his eyes.

"I had no choice since Lilynette kept waking me up while you two started making noise over here," Starrk said as he cleaned his ears.

"Well that's great way to say farewell, Starrk," Grimmjow said; Starrk was confused by Grimmjow's comment, but he finally understood after a minute or so.

"So today's the day, huh?" Starrk said in a dull tone.

"Yep, time for me to head home and cause a little trouble. Though I still have to consult Aizen-sama, so I am waiting for him to return," Naruto said. Starrk nodded in reply before he sat next to Naruto.

"Then wait no longer," a familiar voice said.

Naruto, Grimmjow, and Starrk turned around to see that Aizen had appeared to see Naruto off. Along with Aizen remaining Espada, their Fracciones, and Naruto's own two Fracciones came to see him off.

"Oh so you were gathering the rest of the guys to see me off?" Naruto said while smiling at Aizen and the Arrancar.

"Yes, I thought that everyone that worked with you should be here to wish you luck. Though I'm sure that the people that fight you should pray for luck if they want to survive," Aizen said showing his usual smile.

"Got that right. Well then, I guess this is good-bye," Naruto said as he extended his hand to Aizen, who took it.

"For now at least," Aizen said as he shook Naruto's hand.

"Good luck, gaki," Nnoitra said while grinning at Naruto.

"Are we coming with you, Naruto-sama?" Tiraran asked while giving a hopeful yet sad look at him.

Tiraran was an Arrancar with long green haired who looked like a teenage girl. Her outfit was just a top with a skirt and some leggings. She had a piece of a mask in the form of a headband. Jango, Naruto's other Fraccion, was a bit taller than Naruto; he had brown medium hair and a hollow mask in the form of a human skull over his entire face. He had an espada outfit with long sleeves and his shirt was open. Both of them had regular katanas, but Tiraran's had a pink hilt and a black-colored blade while Jango's had a black hilt and a sickly-pale-colored blade. Tiraran and Jango were the 28th and 29th Numeros-class Arrancars, respectively; though they were both at the same level of strength as Ulquiorra when he used his Segunda Etapa without releasing their zapakutos they had chosen not to become Espada out of their loyalty to Naruto.

"No, you should remain here in Hueco Mundo. I will, however, call when I need your assistance," Naruto said as the two Arrancar bowed.

"If that's what you wish, Naruto-sama," Jango said, giving a weak smile.

Naruto opened up a Garganta and stepped through it. He took one last glance back at his teachers before it closed completely.

'Take care of yourselves, and thanks for everything,' Naruto thought to himself as the Espada disappeared from sight.

[Main Gate, Konohagakure]

Izumo and Kotetsu were at the entrance to Konoha, bored as usual. They had been there the whole morning, taking check of everyone that had passed into, and out of, Konoha. Though they hoped it was nothing bad, Izumo and Kotetsu wished that something interesting would happen. They got their wish when a black portal opened up in the sky above them.

"W-what in the name of Kami is that?" Izumo asked as he and Kotetsu just looked at the portal with a little scared look.

"I'm not sure, but it doesn't look friendly," Kotetsu said; Kotetsu was about to go get back up before was stopped by Izumo grabbing his arm.

"Wait, there's someone inside," Izumo said while pointing at a figure that appeared within the portal.

"No way. That's…" Kotetsu said as he stared at the person inside the portal.

The person he saw inside of the portal was none other than Naruto, who then stepped out of the portal and floated gently to the ground. Naruto walked to the gate and nodded to the two guards as they stared wide-eyed at him.

"Yo," said Naruto casually as he walked into the village towards the Hokage Tower.

Izumo and Kotetsu just stared with open mouths and then looked back at each other.

[Hokage's Office, The Academy]

_A Few Minutes Later..._

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was dealing with the one threat that no kage had been able to get rid of… paperwork. The stack in front of him was huge in height as the old man tried to make it smaller with every sheet signed. The sad part was that the stack was going to be at the same level tomorrow, if it didn't go higher. As he was going through some more documents, someone knocked the on door.

"Come in," the Third said as he took down another sheet to be signed.

"Long time no see old man," an voice said; this voice made the hokage look up with wide eyes.

Standing in the door way was Naruto, smiling at one of the few people that treated him with kindness. The Sandaime had tried to have Naruto be seen as a hero, as per the Yondaime's instructions, but it fell on mostly deaf ears. The few people who did listen tried to at least adopt the poor kid, but the civilian council, in their arrogance and complete hatred of the boy, shot them all down. When the Hokage told the councils that Gin and Tosen had taken Naruto, the civilian council was happy to be rid of the so called "demon child". The shinobi council, however, was not so cheerful. When the Sandaime assured them, in secret, that Naruto would return one day they got a little bit happy; unlike the civilian council, the members of the shinobi council did not hold any real hatred towards Naruto as they knew the Kyubi's attack on Konoha was not Naruto's fault. Now, after 7 years, Naruto has returned, Hiruzen sensing the definite change that had occurred.

"Welcome home, Naruto," Sandaime said as he gave the blonde a big hug.

"Thanks, old man, though I doubt I'll get the same warm welcome from most people. How've you been? Still dealing with paperwork?" Naruto said. The Third frowned in response to that comment as he was well aware that the child was mocking him and his torment.

"Unfortunately yes, I am unable to escape this torture, until I find a successor," the Sandaime said, going back to his desk and motioning Naruto to sit; Naruto, however, waved it off.

"I'm not here to talk long I just wanted to say hi and get back to the academy. Though they can't really teach me anything there, I still need to graduate to be a ninja," Naruto said, to which the Sandaime nodded; the Sandaime then held up a finger.

"Hold on a sec, I almost forgot. This will let you go through the graduation process without having going through all the teachings over again so you can graduate with your class," he said before he took out a piece of paper and wrote down a note that he then gave to Naruto.

"Thanks, old man," Naruto said before taking the note and waving goodbye to the man who was like a grandfather to him before leaving.

[Academy Classroom]

_A Few Moments Later_

"Don't forget that the graduation exam is tomorrow, so everyone study hard and sharpen your skills tonight," Iruka announced to the class.

Everyone was excited about finally graduating, having worked hard, for the most part, to become ninja. Some of the students had decided to become ninja to gain power, some were there to achieve glory, and some were just there only because their parents forced them to go(**cough **Shikamaru **cough**). The opening of the door stopped the chattering amongst the students. The figure that stepped in made the guys look shocked, the girls with blushes on their faces and few with nose bleeds. As Naruto walked in he gave a mock salute to Iruka and gave him the note from the Hokage. Iruka nodded at Naruto in understanding and motioned for him to take a seat. A certain Uchiha was looking at Naruto with a frown; the fact that this new guy walked in here like he owned the place felt like an attack on the Uchiha's pride.

"Class, our new student, or returning student to be more precise, is Naruto Uzumaki. He will be participating in the graduation exam with the rest of you," Iruka said. Some of the students were shocked by this revelation while other, including a certain pink-haired girl, were very upset.

"Iruka-sensei, that's not fair! Why does that blonde baka get to take the exam when he hasn't even been here for so long?" Sakura screeched. Because she had done this in Naruto's ear he had to clean them to make sure that the pink banshee didn't cause him to lose his ability to hear.

"Because Naruto has been training for the past seven years in another place. His training makes him more than qualified to take the exam," Iruka said as Sakura gave one last angry look at Naruto before she went back to her seat.

'Naruto-kun, I knew it was you,' Hinata tought as she blushed at seeing Naruto in such a hot outfit.

Naruto sensed her looking at him and turned around and looked at her. Hinata immediately tuned her head with an "eep" sound. Naruto turned back around and gave a smile. As the bell rung dismissed the students proceeded to return home. Naruto walked away from the classroom, but stopped when he felt someone's killer intent directed at him. Naruto turned around to see Sasuke Uchiha who was, giving him an ugly look.

"What do you want, Uchiha?" Naruto asked him; he was not in the mood for a fight with the Uchiha punk as that would have been a waste of his time.

"I just want you to remember your place. I'm the top student in my class, so don't you think that I'll let you pass this exam, you dead last," Sasuke said; the Uchiha was smirking until Naruto yawned in reply. Naruto had fought against beings with more power than anyone in this world could shake a stick at; the Uchiha standing before him was, to Naruto, little more than a cockroach by comparison and, as a result, not even worth taking seriously.

"You finished gloating yet? I have gotta go to my apartment to make sure I've got food to eat," Naruto said as he turned around.

"Don't you turn your back on me!" the Uchiha yelled as he threw a punch; Sasuke stopped his attack when Naruto disappeared.

Sasuke looked around for Naruto but couldn't find him until he reappeared behind the Sasuke, his sword pressed against the Uchiha's neck.

"I'm not gonna fight you today, Sasuke. I'll save that for tomorrow;, just be ready to be beaten by a 'dead last' in the meantime," Naruto said as he once again disappeared, leaving the Uchiha enraged at this humiliation.

Next Time – A Secret Revealed


	4. 3 A Secret Revealed

**Chapter 3 - A Secret Revealed.**

[Konohagakure]

Naruto was quite surprised to fing his apartment completely untouched. He thought for sure that some of the crazy villagers would have come here to ransack the room and then burn it down, yet here it was, nothing out of place except for a little dust. He went through the fridge and found that everything had expired years ago from both on the labels and the smell of, for lack of a better comparison, death. While he could have gone to buy groceries, he decided on a different solution for the time being. He left his apartment and headed to the one restaurant he had missed since he left Konoha: Ichiraku Ramen. He walked into the stand and sat down at his usual spot. Memories of all the times he had come here to enjoy a good bowl of ramen flooded his mind as he anticipated tasting the finest ramen in all of the shinobi world.

"Hello and welcome to Ichira- Naruto, you're back! Dad, come here and see this," Ayame said as she went outside and hugged Naruto; her father came out from the kitchen at the mention of Naruto's name.

"Well I'll be, it's good to see you again Naruto. I'll be honest, I thought I wasn't going to see you again," Teuchi said, as Ayame pulled away from Naruto and went back inside.

"You know I can't be parted from your ramen forever," Naruto said flashing his trademark smile at them as he ordered pork ramen.

When Naruto got out the chopsticks and slurped up the first bit of ramen, he let out a sigh of happiness. It was still as good as it was when he had left Konoha; it tasted a lot better when one remembers he's been deprived of this ramen for so long. In Hueco Mundo, Naruto had to eat whatever he could find, not an easy thing considering the lack of anything alive there. As for something to drink, tea was provided by Aizen….. most of the time. After a large amount of ramen consumption Naruto decided to head back to the apartment and rest up for tomorrow. As he lay in bed, Naruto thought of the best way to unveil his new abilities tomorrow at the Academy. The thoughts of all the shocked faces brought a smile to his face.

"_Tomorrow everyone will learn that I'm the top guy now_," Naruto thought to himself before he fell now asleep.

_The next day..._

Naruto woke up and put back on his outfit before he walked out the door. As he made his way to the Academy he noticed that he was still getting ugly looks from some of the villagers; the looks didn't improve when he got to the Academy. Some of the parents saw Naruto only as a monster that the Yondaime merely weakened for the people of the village to finish off; the only Naruto thought that he had regarding this was how sweet it would feel when the stares would change, eventually. Not everyone stared at him with hatred in their eyes as there were some friendly faces in the mix; those faces were the families of Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba, whom Naruto had spent a lot of time with before he left for Las Noches. A few minutes before the tests began Naruto made his way into the classroom and took his seat; he looked to his left and saw Sasuke, who was still seething after what happened yesterday.

"_I'm goning to embarrass you in front of the entire academy, you loser_," Sasuke thought to himself as he ignored the usual screeching from his fan girls.

Sakura, one these fangirls, decided to get on Sasuke's good side… by pushing Naruto around.

"You might as well quit, baka. Sasuke is the best and you can compete with him; for all we know, your training didn't help you at all, so why don't you just leave before you end up embarrassing yourself," Sakura said as she hit Naruto in the back of the head. Bad idea. Naruto's face was planted to his desk as a result; even though Naruto did hit the desk pretty hard it didn't break since Sakura didn't have that kind of strength yet. Naruto looked up from his desk, straightened his back, took a deep breath, and stood up.

_A few moments later..._

Iruka was very excited to see how his students fared in the tests. He had trained them well and silently wished the best of luck to them. He was even more excited, though, to see how powerful Naruto had become; Iruka had tried to look out for Naruto when he was still here and treated him like a brother. Iruka opened the door and stood in front of the class.

"Good morning class; I just wanted to say I'm proud of all of you for making it this far and I think tha- OH KAMI! Sakura what happened to your face?!" Iruka yelled as he looked over at a bruised Sakura.

After Sakura had smacked Naruto, Naruto simply smirked and punched her in her face, causing her to hit the floor. Hard. Using one and a half percent of his strength. After Sakura didn't move for a while Naruto picked her up and sat her in her desk before he proceeded to gently shake her until she regained consciousness. When Sakura came to, however, the pain of Naruto's attack attack hit her so fast that she would have screamed in pain if Naruto hadn't covered her mouth with his hand. After he whispered something in her ear he removed his hand; Sakura decided to stay quiet until Iruka came in. Sakura now looked at Naruto, who looked back at her allowing Iruka to make the connection; he decided not to say anything about it, however, as he figured Sakura probably said or did something that was stupid enough to force Naruto to respond like this.

"Naruto punched her in the face and she fell on the floor," A random student from the class said to the Chunin.

"Is That so? We'll about this after talk after the exams, Naruto," Iruka said as Naruto gave a nod in understanding.

Naruto and his fellow classmates took a series of different tests to test their skills, ranging from Jutsus to use of weapons; though the jutsu that the students usually demonstrated was the Clone Jutsu, Naruto was allowed to demonstrate an alternative technique due to the unique cirumstances surrounding his training. The final test would the combat skills portion; the students would spar with each other to show their fighting skills. In the first match Choji fought Kiba, if you can call sitting on Kiba for the entire match fighting. The next match was between Sakura and Shikamaru but the match was called a draw after a while due to Sakura's face being sore as well Shikamaru's laziness. In the next match Hinata defeated Ino with her clan's Gentle Fist attacks; after the match ended Hinata looked over at Naruto to see if he watched her. Naruto looked back at her and gave her a smile and nod, causing Hinata to blush on the outside and to jump up and down in he rmind. After a few other other fights Sasuke and Naruto's little spar, if you wanted to call it that, was next. Almost all of the girls were, not surprisingly, cheering for Sasuke, with Hinata the only exception. Naruto walked out into the little grass area where the spar would take place; before the match began Naruto unsheathed his zanpakuto and stuck it in the ground which, to those who knew him in Las Noches, meant that he would fight the opponent in question but still saw him/her as a waste of his time.

"I'm gonna crush you loser, and prove that you are what we all know you as… a dead last," Sasuke said as got screams of approval from the fan girls and a raised eye brow from Naruto.

"Is that so? Well then, why don't I make your victory a little bit easier, ow great Uchiha," Naruto mockingly said to which Sasuke responded by looking at him with a frown.

"And how do plan to you do that?" Sasuke asked as Naruto held up one arm and put it behind his back.

(Rocker1600 Note: Moderate editing from the original begins)

"I will give you an advantage. One hand… no, one finger is all I will use for this spar. Sound good to you?" Naruto said smirking, while the Uchiha just frowned. Naruto closed his free hand into a fist, save for his index finger.

"Do what you want you'll still lose no matter what," Sasuke said as readied himself for a fight.

"Ready? Begin!" Iruka said.

Sasuke made the first move when he chargrf at Naruto; Sasuke threw a right hook but was dodged by Naruto who sidestepped the punch. Sasuke then tried a body kick, which Naruto easily evaded. Sasuke kept using attack after attack, but nothing connected. Then, Sasuke nailed Naruto in the chin with an uppercut. Everyone held their breath, thinking the Uchiha had finally won the fight. Chuckling broke the silence, which then turned in to all out laughter. It was coming from Naruto, which enraged Sasuke.

"Are you serious? That's it? I gotta say, I knew you were weak, but this is pathetic," Naruto said as he looked at the Uchiha.

"Why you-" Sasuke said before Naruto placed his finger on Sasuke's chest. Before Sasuke could react, Naruto used his finger to push Sasuke back. Naruto had applied enough force to send Sasuke flying back to the academy building; when Sasuke landed on the wall of the building, the amount of force Naruto had used caused Sasuke to go right through the wall, leaving a noticeable hole. The fan girls immediately crowded an unconscious Uchiha while Naruto picked up his sword, sheathed it and walked away with a wide smile. As he was about to go back inside to receive his headband, Iruka stopped him.

"Naruto, I'm sure Sakura did something or said something stupid, but please have better control over your attacks from now on; that goes for this little display as well," Iruka said as he got a nod from Naruto.

"Don't worry, that was just so she knew not to hit me again; as for Sasuke, I actually held back….. a lot," Naruto said with a grin as he walked back to the Academy.

Despite the angry looks from some of the villagers, Naruto was more than satisfied with becoming a full-fledged shinobi of Konoha. Naruto was on his way home when he saw Hinata walking home with her father Hiashi.

"Hey Hinata, congratulations on becoming a shinobi," Naruto said; he chuckled in the back of the mind as he saw Hinata blush.

"Um… th-thank you, Naruto-kun," Hinata said while her father, Hiashi, just smiled at the two.

"Congratulations to you two. I hope that you and my daughter will do great things for Konoha," said Hiashi, as Naruto nodded at him.

"We will. I've gotta go now, so I'll see you around, Hinata," said Naruto, walking away as Hinata waved goodbye. Hiashi simply looked at the young Naruto.

"_I don't know what you did for her, but I thank you for it; though she still has a long way to go, you helped her gain some confidence in herself,_" Hiashi thought to himself before he and Hinata continued to walk home.

(Rocker1600 Note: Moderate editing form the original ends)

Naruto made his way back to his apartment and found a note pinned to the door when he arrived.

_Naruto, I want to congratulate you on becoming a shinobi. I have something I wanted to talk to you about; think of it as a reward for becoming a shinobi. Meet me at the Hokage Tower after reading this note. _

_Signed, _

_The Third Hokage_

Naruto then used a flash step to get to the Hokage Tower. Sarutobi was waiting for him at the top of the tower, smoking his usual pipe; he nearly dropped his pipe in shock when Naruto appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

"You got here fast. How'd you do that?" Sarutobi asked, surprised by how fast the boy could move.

"It's a technique called a flash step; it's one of the things I learned at Las Noches. Anyways, what did you want to talk to me about?" Naruto asked as he folded his arms.

"Naruto, have you ever wondered about who your parents might be?" asked Sarutobi, getting a raised eyebrow from Naruto.

"Sometimes. I always thought that my parents died during the Kyubi's attack; after I earned the Kyubi's trust I tried asking him about my parents to see if he knew but he's been very reluctant to tell me," Naruto said while taking note of the fact that Sarutobi's eyes widen in shock.

"How did you find out about the Kyubi?" Sarutobi asked as he had made it clear that it was forbidden to mention the Kyubi's presence within Naruto to the boy.

"Aizen, the man who helped train me, told me," Naruto calmly to which Hiruzen did a facepalm; he had forgotten that he had not mentioned this rule to the two men who had taken Naruto with them seven years ago.

"I see… well your parents did die during the Kyuubi attack, but your father is the one who sealed the Kyubi in you, to protect the village," Sarutobi said as he saw that Naruto was looking at him as if he had two heads.

"That's impossible. That would mean that my dad is-," Naruto said before Sarutobi finished the sentence for him.

"The Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze," Sarutobi said; Naruto's face was suddenly with feelings of shock, then happiness, and then anger, which Sarutobi had expected…to an extent.

"My own father…sealed the Kyubi inside me," Naruto said as he clenched his fists.

"I thought you might react that way, but you have to understand that he had faith that you would one day be able to control it, which you have. And I can promise you that your father truly did care about and would not have done it if he didn't have a good reason to," Sarutobi said he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder; this revelation helped calm Naruto calm down.

"That makes since, and I guess being the son of the Yondaime makes up for it," Naruto said; Sarutobi smiled at seeing how much Naruto had matured since he left.

"I have something I want to show you. Follow me," Sarutobi said before leading Naruto out of the Hokage Tower.

He led him to the Namikaze Estate, which was located about a half a mile outside of Konoha; the place was, needless to say, enormous, as it was twice as big as the Hyuga estate. Naruto saw that the place was surrounded by a barrier, with a blood seal on the front door keeping it intact.

"Go ahead, release the seal," Sarutob saidi to which Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto placed his hand on the seal, which quickly deactivated the barrier; Naruto was a little bit shocked that it worked.

"So is this place mine now?" Naruto asked to which as Sarutobi nodded.

"Yes, but let's not move in yet. Ir's best for us to make sure that everyone knows you're the son of the Fourth before getting comfortable in your birthright," Sarutobi explained; Naruto nodded in agreement.

"That sounds fair to me. Thanks for showing me this, old man," Naruto said as he hugged the old kage.

"I knew you were strong enough to know the truth now," Sarutobi said as he broke off the hug and walked back to the tower.

_I hope you're watching me dad, because your son is about to become the greatest shinobi of all time,_" Naruto as he looked one last time at the estate before reactivating the barrier.

Next Time – Teams and Problems


	5. 4 Teams and Problems

**Chapter 4- Teams and Problems**

Disclaimer: Still applies

[Academy Classroom, Konohagakure]

Naruto was a bit anxious today. Why? Because today was the day where he would get put into a genin team. He just hoped he didn't get put into a group of morons, primarily Sasuke and Sakura, if at all possible; he especially hoped he didn't get the both of them. Oh Kami, he prayed that he didn't have those two. He hoped he would get put with a teamof people like Hinata and Shino. Those two had some sense in their heads. He would take Shikamaru at this point; though he found his a bit annoying, Naruto was at least on good terms with him. His thought process was disrupted when he got of to the classroom. Iruka came into the classroom a few minutes later to address the class.

"Welcome class. First off, I would like to congratulate all of you for passing and becoming genin. As you know, this means that you will now be put into teams of threeand will carry out mission with both your teammates and your sensei. Now, for the team assigning. Team 1 will be …" Iruka said as he announced several teams; this continued until he got to Team 7.

"Team Seven will be Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha," said Iruka, as he saw Naruto just put his head down in anger.

"_Kami, you have cruel sense of humor,_" Naruto thought to himself as he raised his head and looked at Sasuke and Sakura, seeing that they weren't too happy about the pick either. (Rocker1600 note: one of my two favorite funny moments in this story; was laughing and thinking, "Yes he/she/it does, Naruto".)

The rest of the teams were announced, and were soon picked up by their respective senseis. Only team seven was left and Naruto was getting pretty tired of waiting for a sensei that, to be perfectly blunt, probably couldn't teach him much. People far more powerful than anyone in Konoha, or the entire shinobi planet for that matter, had trained him personally. His squad leader would probably favor the Uchiha and spoil the little punk with jutsus. Naruto had to drown out these thought as they were making him sick to his stomach; Naruto was interested, however, to see just how he faired against a jonin.

"Ugh, where is he? He couldn't have gotten lost, could he?" Sakura asked as she wondered what was taking their squad leader so long.

"Sakura, it's bad enough that I am stuck on the same team as you; please don't make things worse by annoying me with your useless blabber," Naruto said as Sakura an angry look in response.

"What did you say, you ingnorant ba-," Sakura said before Naruto gave her one of those 'remember what I can do to you' looks, silencing her.

"Hmph," Sasuke said, annoyed at both his teammates and wishing he didn't have to wait around.

The classroom door opened a couple of hours later to reveal a man with gray hair, a mask that covered half of his face, a standard jonin outfit, and a headband that covered one of his eyes. He walked in and briefly observed the three genin.

"Okay, you three are with me. Come outside so we can talk a little," the man said as the young ninja got up and followed him outside.

"Okay, now I'm going to ask you guys about what you like, things you hate, and your dreams about the future. I'll start off. I'm Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes… My dreams for the future… Hmm… As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies…," Kakashi said while Naruto and the others had anime sweat drops on their heads.

"_Well that was…informative_," Naruto thought to himself as he looked at Kakashi lazily.

"Okay now, blonde kid, tells us a little bit about you," Kakashi back as Naruto regained his focus and straightened out his back.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and hanging around with my friends. I hate people who are annoying and anyone who threatens my village and my friends. My dream is to one day become the strongest nina and become Hokage," Naruto said as Kakashi nodded at the son of his late sensei.

"_He's certainly gotten much more powerful than even I am,_" Kakashi noted as he told Sakura to tell the about about herself.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. I like (giggles) well the person I like (giggles) is Sasuke. I hate Naruto and others who don't like Sasuke. My dream is to be a great shinobi," Sakura said while annoying both Naruto and Kakashi in the process.

"_Oh perfect, a fan girl_," Kakashi thought before he told Sasuke that it was his turn.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone," he said; Sakura began to look worried while Naruto just shook his head.

"_Revenge, the one thing that will make anyone a pain in the ass,_" Naruto thought to himself as he looked at Sasuke. Kakashi looked at Naruto's expression and realized that his thought probably matched his own thought about what Sasuke just said before he continued his little lecture.

"Okay then, tomorrow I'm going to give you guys a little exercise I use with my teams. So get some rest and meet me at the training field; I would also advise that you don't eat anthing in the morning if I were you," Kakashi said beofre he left to leave his students to their thoughts about his advice.

Sakura and Sasuke were both worried; Naruto, on the other hand, was not fazed by Kakashi's warning in the slightest, as he already knew that Kakashi was bluffing.

"_You might have these other two fooled, but you'll soon find that I'm much sharper than that,_" Naruto thought as he headed back to his apartment.

The next morning Naruto woke up and ate a plentiful breakfast before he made his way to the training ground; Sakura and Sasuke showed up a few seconds later, their stomachs growling from not haven eaten they left the training ground the previous day. Naruto mentally chuckled at the pathetic site of them both. After a couple of hours Kakashi finally showed up to give them their task.

"Good morining everyone. Today's exercise will be a simple one; all you have to do is take one of these two bells from me. The two who manage to take a bell pass the test while the one who didn't get a bell will be tied to one of those posts there," Kakashi said as he held up the two bells.

"That's it? And here I was thinking that this would be a little bit challenging," Naruto said while popping his neck.

"I thought that we would be fighting or something," Sasuke said while Sakura nodded in "agreement".

"You may think it is so simple, but I haven't told you this next bit. If you don't get one of the bells, you also won't get any lunch at the end," Kakashi said, getting surprised looks from both Sasuke and Sakura.

"That's why you didn't want us to eat this morning," Sakura said before Naruto gave a slow clap.

"And the light finally turns on," Naruto said sarcasticly, getting an angry glance from Sakura.

"Getting back to what I was saying that punishment pales next to the last bit yet," Kakashi said; Sasuke's eyes widened when he heard this while Sakura gulped. The tension in the air grew as Kakashi waited a few seconds before he continued.

"Whichever two of you get a bell will continue on to do another exercise while the one who failed to get a bell will not only fail the test... he or she will be sent back to the academy immediately. This 'training exercise' is is actually an extremely difficult post-academy exam with a failure rate of over 66%. In other words out of the 27 graduates this year only nine will be chosen to become genin," Kakashi declared; he took a moment to mentally enjoy the reactions from Sasuke and Sakura before he saw that Naruto wasn't even fazed in the least.

"_I see... that's very clever, Kakashi; if it wasn't for my time training at Las Noches I wouldn't have figured out what you really want from us. Too bad these two wouldn't bother agreeing to it,_" Naruto thought to himself.

Kakashi guessed that he either felt that his strength would be enough to beat him or, from he could tell from Naruto's expression, that he already figured out what the true purpose of this test really was. Shaking off these thought Kakashi refocused his attention to the three graduates.

"Alright, you three. I want you guys use whatever means to take these bells, and that includes the use of any ninja tools and jutsus; if not prepared to kill me, you won't get the bells. Understood?" Kakashi asked; the genin nodded in agreement.

"_It's time to see how I fair,_" Naruto thought as he readied himself for battle.

"Ready? Go!" Kakashi said; while Sakura and Sasuke scattered Naruto stayed put, crossing his arms.

"I have no intention of hiding and waiting. I'm going to see right now if I can hang with one of the best Konoha has to offer," Naruto said; he cracked a smile as Kakashi readied himself.

"I've actually wanted to see what you can do as well," Kakashi said while pulled out an orange book from one of his pouches.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow at his sensei.

"Finding out what happens at the end," Kakashi said as he saw Naruto's face drop to the ground.

"Anyways," Naruto said before disappearing in a Flash step.

"What the-?" Kakashi said before looking up to see Naruto with one leg raised vertically in the air.

"Hollow Leg Drop!" Naruto yelled as he brought his leg down on Kakashi, causing a huge crater in the process.

"_Holy crap!_" Sasuke and Sakura thought to themselves, with their jaws on the floor, as they witnessed the immense power Naruto had just displayed.

When the dust settled, Naruto stood over a log that was broken in half.

"A substitution jutsu. This guy is quick on his feet," Naruto said as he looked around for his sensei.

"_I have to admit I wasn't expecting that from him. I guess I won't be able to fight and read a book at the same time with him on my heels, _" Kakashi thought to himself as he hid in the tree from his student; he also decided to put his book back into its pouch.

"How in the name of Kami did you get so strong, baka?" Sakura asked as she and Sasuke came out of hiding and walked to Naruto.

"Years of intense training and a drive not fueled by revenge," Naruto said, having clearly directed the second part of his comment at Sasuke.

"Are you saying that my way is wrong? That I shouldn't punish the man responsible for my clan's destruction?" Sasuke asked while Naruto just shook his head.

"You just don't get it," Naruto said while Sasuke began to walk away.

"Whatever, I'm gonna go find Kakashi and get my bell," Sasuke said before he disappeared, leaving Naruto and Sakura by themselves.

"Sasuke will definitely get a bell; he'll also help me get one too," Sakura said, to which Naruto just rolled his eyes.

"That idiot won't get a bell with that kind of attitude. Heck, even if he did managed to beat Kakashi, he still wouldn't get a bell," Naruto said with a smile while Sakura looked at him with confusion.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked while Naruto still smiled.

"This is what I mean," Naruto declared, holding up both bells.

"When did you get those?" Sakura asked, shocked at the sight of the bells.

"When I disappeared, I snatched the bells quickly and then moved above Kakashi. I'm actually surprised he didn't notice," he said while Sakura's eyes sparkled at the bells.

"So I guess I have to beat you to get the bells. Let's do this," Sakura getting ready only to get laughed at by Naruto.

"As much as I would love to smear you across the ground, you're still my teammate," Naruto said to Sakura as he tossed her a bell and started to walk off.

"Why just give it to me so willingly?" Sakura asked as Naruto turned around and looked at her.

"Because you'll need it more than me," he said before Flash stepping away, leaving Sakura lost in thought.

Naruto searched around for Sasuke. He expected to see him fighting Kakashi, but he found something else. Sasuke was neck deep in the ground, having been put there because of Kakashi. Naruto had to fight the urge to snicker at the "prodigy's" situation.

"So I guess you didn't get a bell, huh?" Naruto said; this got him Sasuke's attention, as well as a frown.

"I almost had him. What do you want loser?" Sasuke asked, while Naruto stood a few inches from his face.

"Your goal to get revenge for your clan isn't going to get you anywhere," Naruto replied. Sasuke was shocked at what Naruto just said.

"I have to avenge my clan. What do you know about it?" Sasuke asked while Naruto just looked at him with a calm and collected expression.

"I don't know what it's like to lose your whole clan, but if you continue to go down this path of revenge, it'll only consume you in the end. Then what will you do?" Naruto asked as Sasuke simply smirked at him.

"Here's my answer, loser," Sasuke said before proceeded to spit on Naruto's sandals.

"Oh well, can't say I didn't try. You don't deserve this, but I really don't care," Naruto said as he tossed the second bell in front of Sasuke.

"When did you get that?" Sasuke asked; Naruto just Flash stepped away again without responding.

Naruto landed on a tree, where a certain masked, orange book reading jonin was sitting on a branch. Kakashi put his book away and started to slowly clap.

"I'm impressed that you were able to get those bells in such a short time," Kakash said as Naruto sat down on the tree branch.

"You should've at least attempt to use your Sharingan, though; it would've at least made things more interesting," Naruto said to Kakashi before taking a moment to mentally smirked at the jonin's reaction.

"_How did he... never mind; I don't I even want to know,_" Kakashi thought to himself as he regained his composure.

"Anyways, I'm just surprised that you didn't stop me or try to get the bells back," Naruto said as Kakashi sat down next to him.

"I wanted to see what you would do with them. So, why did you give those two the bells?" Kakashi asked while Naruto thought back at his time in Las Noches.

**Flashback**

[Somewhere within Las Noches, Hueco Mundo]

"You really think that you can take me?" Apacci asked, enraged that Mila Rose would even try to take her on.

"Heck yea I could, Unicorn weakling," Mila Rose said as she got face-to-face with Apacci.

"You two fighting all the time is so childish and trivial," Sung-Sun said, getting angry looks from the other two as a result.

"What did you just say?" Apacci asked, getting even madder because of the comment.

Naruto, meanwhile, watched as the three Fraccion members fought amongst themselves from the top of a nearby tower. He saw Tier Harribel walking behind him.

"Why do they constantly fight amongst themselves, Harribel-sama? They have to work toether as a team with you and the rest of the Arrancar, but all they do is fight each other," Naruto said as Harribel walked up to him and to his right side.

"You are right, they do fight amongst themselves a lot, but they still work together of because of their loyalty ot me. Loyalty is the key for any team to work together for a united goal," Harribel said as she saw that her wisdom had already reached Naruto.

**End Flashback**

[Konoha Training Grounds]

_Current Time..._

"Lets just say that I had a good teacher that taught that loyalty is the key to uniting a team," Naruto said as Kakashi nodingd at him.

"Well, the timer should be going off any moment now. You should probably go off somewhere," Kakashi said; Naruto took off as soon as he was done.

A few seconds later, the timer went off and everyone made their way back to the Hero's Memorial Stone. Sakura and Sasuke showed Kakashi that they had their bells. Kakashi congratulated them both and told them they could eat; he told Naruto that he would have to be tied to the log. Naruto willingly went over and let himself be tied up. Kakashi then told Sasuke and Sakura that they could eat their lunch, but were told that Naruto could not and that they could not feed him any of their lunch. Kakashi then said that they would attempt this test one last time just in case the results of the first attempt were a fluke before he left Team 7 so that they could eat their lunch.

"I still don't understand why you helped us, Naruto," Sakura said while Naruto just stared off into the ether.

"It doesn't matter if you understand it or not. Though I don't like it, you guys are my teammates, so I have to help you," Naruto said while Sasuke scoffed at him while he ate.

"You're an idiot who doesn't know how to take advantage of and opportunity and that's all there is to it," Sasuke said while eating his lunch in front of him in an unsuccessful attempt to irritate Naruto. He stopped when, to his amazement, he saw was Sakura raising her lunch to Naruto. Naruto was equally surprised by this move.

"Don't think that this means that I like you or anything, but you did help me. This is just way for me to thank you," Sakura said as Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank Kami. For a moment I thought you were trying to make me fall for you or something," Naruto said as he got an angry look form Sakura.

"Do you want to eat or what?" Sakura asked before she that saw that Naruto now had a serious look on his face.

"You'll have to feed it to my mouth considering I'm a little tied up right now," Naruto said; Sakura, while undoubtebly angry, understood the circumstances.

"Fine, here," Sakura said as she took a little bit of the food with her chopstick and giving it to Naruto.

The minute Naruto swallowed the food, there was a huge boom; Kakashi appeared a split-second later with an angry expression on his face.

"DIDN'T I TELL YOU NOT TO FEED HIM!" Kakashi yelled as he noticed Sakura looked scared out of her mind while Naruto had a serious look in his eyes.

"I w-was j-j-just giving him s-some of my l-l-lunch s-since he helped m-me get a b-b-bell," a terrified Sakura stuttered as Kakahsi looked at her, then Naruto.

"Is this true Naruto?" Kakashi asked, though he already knew the truth.

"It's true. I gave Sakura her bell," Naruto replied while Sasuke just looked at him with anger.

"Well if that's the case…" Kakashi said in angry tone; just as Sasuke and Sakura began to brace themselves for the worst, Kakashi suddenly turned tail and smiled at them, though it was hidden behind his mask.

"….. you pass," Kakashi said cheerfully while getting shocked looks from Sakura and Sasuke.

"We… passed," Saskura said before proceeding to jump up with joy after Kakashi's statement sunk in.

"Well that was a good act you put on their sensei," Naruto said; even Naruto was willing to admit that Kakashi scared him at the beginning, though not by much.

"What do you mean we pass?" Sasuke asked as he was still unsure what was going on.

"This test was all about teamwork and how well you three could you work together. Naruto was the only one who realized it, though it was Sakura's actions that sealed the deal," Kakashi said as he untied Naruto.

"I figured as much, but why so much deception? If the goal was teamwork, why not have a bell for each of us?" Naruto asked, to which Kakashi responded by pointing at the memorial stone behind him.

"It's something that a close friend of mine taught me. Those who break the rules are scum, but those who betray their…. are worse than scum," Kakashi said. Naruto nodded in understanding; he now realized this test was designed to see if the people partaking in it were able to place their team over the rules.

"So what now?" Naruto asked after that they had passed their sensei's first test.

"Now? Team 7 starts missions tomorrow!" Kakashi said as give the genin a thumbs up.

"_Finally, we can get down to business,_" Naruto thought as he left Kakashi and his teammates and headed home.

Next Time – A Mission on Waves


	6. 5 A Mission on Waves

**Chapter 5- A Mission on Waves**

Disclaimer: Still applies

[Mission Assignment Room, The Academy, Konohagakure]

_Current Time..._

Naruto and his team had been completing numerous D-rank missions, all of which felt like a waste of time and, to both Naruto and Sasuke, a waste of their skills. In Naruto's case most- no forget that- ALL of these missions didn't even require the use of his Zanpakuto. Naruto was dying to get some action and, after going on a mission to retrieve Tora, the pet cat of the Fire Daimyo's wife, for the tenth time, he almost used his Zanpakuto on the feline in his frustration, having deciding that he would just put the cat out of its misery and to get it out of his hair, so to speak. Kakashi managed to talk Naruto down, thankfully, after he promised that they wouldn't do this mission again. Naruto wasn't too happy in sparing the cats life but as long as he didn't have to deal with this cat ever again he was satisfied. Upon returning Tora, the Daimyo's wife crushed it with a hug and paid the Hokage before she left; Naruto now felt a little sorry for the annoying feline. As the Daimyo's wife left the room, Naruto decided to voice his frustration.

"Old man, this pile of crap that you call "missions" is not what I thought I was going to be doing when I graduated," Naruto said as he crossed his arms.

"I understand that these aren't the most ideal missions, but they are essential to the village's financial survival," Sandaime said as he got a frustrated sigh from Naruto and his teammates, as they were also tired of getting these chores.

"Can't you gave me a mission that might force me to put my some of my training to use?" Naruto asked. Naruto was getting a little edgy over the fact that he had not been able to use what he had learned during his training in Las Noches outside of practice sessions with the rest of his team and he couldn't even use full power even then after nearly, and accidently, killing an unsuspecting genin team when he demonstrated his Gran Rey Cero to his team.

"Well... there is this one C-ranked mission that we have here. A bridge builder from Land of Waves needs a team to escort him back home so that he can finish a bridge," Sandaime said as he looked over the mission description.

"Sounds better than walking a dog or pulling out some old woman's weeds," Sasuke said; he, like Naruto, was also at his wits end with all the ridiculous missions.

"Okay then, bring out the client," Sandaime ordered as two chunin near the door of the room went to retrieve the builder.

The "builder" was an old man holding onto a bottle of alcohol and seemed to be little more than a drunk to Team 7; what he said next did little to improve Team 7's, or at least Sakura and Sasuke's, opinion of him.

"What is this? I pay you guys to give me top protection and you give me a cyclops, an emo-looking, duck-butt haired freak, and a pink haired monster with the largest forehead that I have ever seen," the bridge builder said, earning himself some ugly looks from Sasuke and Sakura while getting a snicker from Naruto.

"Got anything to comment on me?" Naruto asked; he just was dying to see what this guy could come up with for him.

"Nice outfit," the bridge builder said as he gave Naruto a thumbs up; Naruto chuckled at this, to which Sakura and Sasuke got even more steamed.

"Mr. Tazuna, you only had enough money for a low rank escort detail. Besides, you said bandits and highwaymen were the only people that might come after you on your way home so I think that you are in good hands," Sandaime explained while smiling at Tazuna, who just rubbed the back of his head in embarassment. The Sandaime's comments, and Tazuna's reaction to taht comment, caused multiple alarms to ring out in Naruto's mind.

"_Why would he need "top" protection if he's only worried about a bunch of thugs? If he's hiding something, then this might just make things interesting,_" Naruto thought to himself before he decided not to voice his suspicions.

"Shall we go then, Mr. Tazuna?" Kakashi asked Tazuna who gave the Jonin a sigh before nodding.

Tazuna and his shinobi escort left the Konoha and headed out to the Land of Waves a few minutes later. On the way there Sasuke didn't say much, Sakura tried to get his attention, and Kakashi rolled his eyes at Sakura's advnces while Tazuna drank the rest of his drink. Naruto, on the other hand, was thinking the Espada and his Fracciones. He wondering how they doing and if he would ever see any the Espada again; he knew that, eventually, he would see his Fracciones since he could call for them to join him whenever he pleased, though there was no need for that just yet. His snapped out of these thoughts when he saw a puddle on the right side of the road. Naruto would not have considered that out of the ordinary... if it wasn't for the fact that it hasn't rained in these parts for well over a month. Naruto smirked st this as he walked past the puddle only to turn around sharply and, with his left hand, stabbed the puddle of water in the center. Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura looked at Naruto as if he was crazy until blood pooled out of puddle and two masked figures jumped out.

"_Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that,_" Kakashi thought to himself as he brought out a kunai.

"You little brat! How'd you find out?" one of the masked guys asked as he brought out his clawed hand, which was chained to the clawed hand of his counterpart.

"Next time you should transform into anything except a puddle of water when it hasn't rained here in over a month," Naruto said as he unsheathed his Zanpakuto.

"So the kiddy has a sword. Let's see if you can actually use that thing," other assailant said as he and his partner charged at Naruto with their claws ready to strike.

"Sasuke, Sakura, protect the bridge builder," Kakashi said as went to give Naruto a hand.

Sasuke was a little reluctant to do that but had decided, wisely, not to get on Kakashi's bad side while Sakura, on the other hand, had no problem staying out of the fight. Naruto blocked one of the attackers while the other one tried to attack from behind only to be cut off by Kakashi and his kunai for his efforts. Naruto spun around and kicked the attacker to his rear over Kakashi's head. When the rear attacker was sent flying Kakashi cut the chain connecting the him to his partner. Naruto then took the one he kicked by the throat and slammed against the ground, knocking him out cold. With that assailant unconscious Naruto turned his attention to the other one, only to find that Kakashi had already tied him up to a tree after he had defeated him.

"You know I could have taken them both," Naruto said as he was a little disappointed that Kakashi had stepped in during the battle.

"I know, but where's the fun in letting my students do all the fighting?" Kakashi asked, rhetorically, as gave Naruto an eye smile.

"Anyways, why don't we find out who this guy is," Naruto said as looked at the bound masked man.

"These two are the Demon Brothers of Kiri. The one you took out is Meizu, and the one we have here is Gozu. They were both ninja from Kirigakure but had defected a while back. Now they're just a couple of missing-nins," Kakashi said; Naruto nodded in understanding before he began to question Gozu.

"So tell me for what reason would a couple of missing-nins like yourselves have to attack us?" Naruto asked as he got close to Gozu.

"We were assigned to kill the old man so he couldn't finish his bridge," Gozu said; Naruto frowned at him upon hearing this revelation.

"If that's the case, then who was it that sent you?" Naruto asked, to which Gozu scoffed at him.

"You're gonna run into him sooner than later, you little punk, and when that happens you and your team are as good as dead," Gozu said; the missing-nin let out an evil chuckle as Naruto just smirked.

"We'll see about that," Naruto calmly said before he knocked Gozu out with a hit to the head.

"Is there something you forgot to mention back in Konoha?" Kakashi asked while looking at Tazuna; everyone else proceded to do the same. Tazuna let out a sigh before he answered

"I guess there's no reason to keep hiding it from you anymore. A powerful businessman and criminal boss by the name of Gato has been oppressing both my village and country. Gato runs a shipping magnate which he also uses as a front for smuggling various kinds of contraband and has taken over the shipping lanes into my country, which is our only way of getting supplies in and out of our country. If I can complete my bridge it will open a different way of trading with different countries, and get us free from Gato's grip on our country since he can't take that over without drawing suspicion from the other nations. Gato knows this and he has been trying to keep me away from the Land of Waves by any means necessary. I could only get enough money to pay for a C-ranking mission, which is why I said that bandits and thieves were the only ones that might come after me. I know I tricked you but you have to understand that my village, and my country by extension, won't survive while Gato remains in power. I'm not asking you to stay with me. You can leave and end the mission right now if you wish," Tazuna said while Kakashi looked, first at him,and then at his genin team.

"What to do you guys think we should do?" Kakashi asked his team who were now in thought; Naruto was the first one to answer.

"I knew something was amiss. Well, I wanted action, and now I've got it. It also sounds like this guy and his country are in a real bind and I can just stand around and let innocent people suffer. I'm in!" Naruto said, getting a nod from Kakashi.

"Sure, it'll help me prove that I am an elite," Sasuke said getting an approving nod from Sakura.

" _Oh brother,_" Naruto thought to himself, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"I guess it's settled then. We will protect you until the bridge is completed, Tazuna," Kakashi said, earning a smile from Tazuna.

"Thank you so much," Tazuna said as he kept walking with Team 7 to the Land of Waves.

[Zabuza's Hideout]

_Meanwhile..._

"The Demon Brothers failed you, Zabuza Momochi. I am paying you top dollar for your services and this is what I get in return?" Gato said before he was cut short by Zabuza, who pointed his Executioner's Blade at his employer's neck.

"Calm yourself, Gato. I see now that it was a mistake to send those two; I will deal with this matter…personally," Zabuza said as he smiled underneath his bandages.

Next Time - Demon of the Mist? Not so Much


	7. 6 Demon of the Mist? Not so Much

**Chapter 6 - Demon of the Mist? Not so Much**

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Somewhere in the Land of Waves]

Team 7 was making its way closer and closer to Tazuna's village, staying on their guard for anyone that might come for them the whole time. Kakashi was keeping cool throughout the trip though he stayed on his toes, so to speak, the whole time as well. Sakura was hoping that she wasn't going to have to fight anyone considering her skills weren't up to par with either Sasuke or her Sensei; she hadn't acknowledged Naruto strength yet, though he could care less about her acknowledgment. Sasuke didn't care if he might be forced to fight since he was an "elite" and, as such, he would be victorious against any opponent. Naruto, meanwhile, was actually hoping that he would get to fight a strong opponent. This was part of the reason why he became stronger in Las Noches; other than protecting those precious to him Naruto wanted to get stronger by fighting the strongest. Maybe it was a bit of his mentor Nnoitra Gilga was rubbing off on him or, more than likely, he was just frustrated by the lack of action in his previous "missions". The one thing that Naruto was certain of was that he had an itch to fight someone he could actually let loose on. Naruto was taken out of his train of thought when he heard something moving in a copse of nearby bushes. Naruto then leaped at the copse and unsheathed his zanpakuto, pointing the tip at the source of the disturbance. He was surprised to see that the culprit was nothing more a white rabbit which trembled as Naruto held his zanpakuto at it. Naruto put his blade baack into its sheath and picked up the little rabbit. Everyone else was wondering why he had lunge at a bush until they saw him emerge from the bushes with the rabbit in hand.

"False alarm, everyone; it was just this little guy here," said Naruto, giving a sheepish smile.

"Getting spooked by a little rabbit, loser?" Sasuke asked mockingly; the smirk that he had vanished when he saw that Naruto was giving him an angry scowl.

"Not as spooked you'll be if I drop you in Hueco Mundo for five minutes," Naruto said, to which Sasuke quickly, albeit reluctantly, back down in fear. Naruto not told his team much regarding his time training in Hueco Mundo to the members of his team; the stories he had told them, however, were terrifying enough for his teammates to wonder whether he had simply gone to hell for seven years.

"Naruto, don't you think there's something weird about this rabbit?" Kakashi asked; Naruto raised an eyebrow as he looked back down at the rabbit until he understood what Kakashi was talking about.

"This rabbit's coat is as white as snow. It's mid-summer so it should be grey. Someone's been keeping this rabbit someones indoors and cool," Naruto said as he saw Kakashi nod at him.

Before Kakashi could say another word, however, a huge sword came appeared from out of nowhere and came flying towards the group. Everyone ducked except for Naruto who, using his quick reflexes, managed to draw out his zanpakuto. He spun underneath the spinning blade and thrusted the blade into the hole of the sword as it passed by him, causing the blade to spin around his zanpakuto until it settled down towards the tsuba. Naruto pulled his zanpakuto out of the hole of the huge blade; Naruto saw that it was a very large sword that was in the form of an oversized butcher's knife.

"Not bad, kid; I didn't expect that you would be able to maneuver that fast," Zabuza said as he appeared from the shadows.

"This is quite a large blade you have here. Are you compensating for something?" Naruto asked Zabuza narrowed his eyes at him. (Rocker1600 Note: My other favorite funny moment).

"You better watch your mouth kid, or I'll show you how to really wield a blade," Zabuza warned Naruto, who simply grinned at him.

"Now that is something I'd like to see," Naruto said before he tossed the Executioner's Blade back to Zabuza.

"Be careful, Naruto. This is Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He has been called The Demon of the Mist due to his brutality and bloodlust, so don't take him lightly," Kakashi warned to which Naruto replied by giving him a smirk.

"Don't worry about me, sensei. This guy lost this fight the moment I became his opponent," Naruto said as he unsheathed his zanpakuto and entered into his fighting stance.

"Don't push your luck with me, kid. You may have some skills but I've been handling a blade a lot longer than you have," Zabuza said as he took his stance as well.

"Then how 'bout you show me instead of talking me to death," Naruto said as he ran towards Zabuza.

"Gladly," Zabuza said as he swung his blade at Naruto's head.

Naruto brought up his blade and met Zabuza's sword head-on. Naruto then proceeded to push back the Executioners blade before he made a vertical swing. Zabuza parried the strike beofe he spun around and swung vertically at Naruto, who simply ducked and landed a kick to Zabuza's chest,which sent him flying. Zabuza managed to recompose himself, but not before Naruto was already on top of him. Zabuza was barely able to bring up his sword in time to block Naruto's attack.

"I have to admit, I was expecting more from one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist," Naruto said in a rather insulting tone, putting Zabuza down even more with the fact that he was only fighting with one hand on the blade while the other hand was still in his pocket.

"Don't get overconfident so quickly," Zabuza said as he kept both hands on his sword.

Naruto raised an eyebrow before he saw someone running past them both and heading right for Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna. It was Zabuza, which meant Naruto was fighting a clone. Naruto immediately used his free hand to disarm the clone of the Executioner's blade and, in one swift and fluid motion, sliced off "Zabuza's" head. The real Zabuza, meanwhile, brought up his sword to try to slash through Kakashi, who had activated his Sharingan, to get to Tazuna. But as he was about to bring down his sword, Naruto grabbed Zabuza by his body strap.

"You should make sure that I'm taken care of before you focus on anyone else, baka!" Naruto said as he flung the Swordsman to the spot where he had been fighting Zabuza's clone.

"Very well, I was getting sick of you anyway," Zabuza said as he began forming multiple hand signs.

"_He's got something big up his sleeve; luckily I got something up my sleeve for him, too,_" Naruto thought as he placed both hands on his Zanpakuto.

"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!" Zabuza yelled as a huge wall of water surged around him and barreled towards Naruto.

"Move, Naruto!" Kakashi yelled as he got the others out of the way; Naruto just stood there, however, as some powerful energy was building up in Naruto's blade, which took the form of a orange colored wave that resembled a crescent moon.

"Getsuga Tenshō!" Naruto yelled as he swung his sword and sent the massive wave of reiatsu flying.

The attack cut right through the wall of water as if it wasn't even there; Tazuna and the rest of Team 7 just looked on in shock as the attack then pushed right through Zabuza and sent him flying. He eventually smacked right into a tree back first. Zabuza then looked up and saw Naruto walking slowly towards him. Zabuza stood up, but was immediately pinned the tree by three kunai's, before he could do anything else. Kakashi then appeared on a tree branch above him.

"Nicely done, Naruto," Kakashi said, flashing his usual eye smile.

"Thanks. That's the same attack I used for my jutsu test back at the Academy," Naruto said; when he did the attack at the Academy it was, intentionally, much weaker than the one he just used right now and even then he was still using only a tiny fraction of the full power of that attack.

"Impressive. Anyways, I think it's time to finish him," Kakashi said as he pulled out a kunai.

"Agreed," Naruto said as he took out his zanpakuto in one hand.

"I am not gonna be put down by some little punk! You can ki-," Zabuza said before he was struck in the neck with three senbon needles.

"What the-?" Naruto asked before a Kirigakure hunter-nin appeared next to Zabuza.

"Thank you. If it had not been for your intervention and strength I don't think I would have taken Zabuza down," the hunter ninja said as he looked down at Zabuza.

"No prob, always happy to help someone with a problem," Naruto said as he sheathed his zanpakuto.

"Now then I will take him away and dispose of his remains," the hunter ninja said while picking Zabuza up off the ground.

"Don't you think you should take care of that now? I mean that is how you guys do things _professionally _in your department," Naruto asked as he suddenly got a little suspicious of the ninja.

"You're quite clever; the problem with that is that we hunter-nins also dispose of the body where can see us doing so. We'll definitely meet again, though," the hunter ninja said before taking off with Zabuza.

"That was an accomplice of Zabuza's. This fight isn't over yet," Naruto said, getting an agreeing from Kakashi.

"You're right, but for now let us get Tazuna to his village sothat he can do his job and we can do ours," Kakashi said before he walked back to Sakura and the others with Naruto next to him.

"_This mission just keeps getting better and better_," Naruto thought to himself as smiled with sheer excitement.

Next Time - Back Up from Las Noches


	8. 7 Back Up from Las Noches

**Chapter 7- Back up from Las Noches**

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Land of Waves]

_Current Time..._

Naruto and his team had finally made it safely to Tazuna's village, with their client in tow. And, to be blunt about it, the town was in dire straits; there were children on the streets, some too impoverished to even beg, prices on all kinds of goods were sky high, and homes were being foreclosed. Naruto found his anger rising with each glance at the place. This Gato guy was going to die a slow and very painful death, he would make sure of that. Eventually the group arrived at Tazuna's home where Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, greeted them at the door and thanked the shinobi for getting her father home safe. After they had settled in, Kakashi wanted to have a discussion with his students.

"What's up Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he sat down with the rest of his squad.

"As you all know, Zabuza is down, but he is certainly not out. I suspect even now that he is gathering up his strength to come and attempt to kill Tazuna again. To prepare for that, you all need to get some training done. We'll rest for today, but tomorrow I need to teach you some new techniques. I will also send word to Konoha to provide us some back up," Kakashi said as he got up from where he had sat down; the Konoha jonin stopped, however, when Naruto spoke up.

"Actually, we don't have to wait so long for backup. I can get us some help right now," Naruto said; this claim shocked both his sensei and teammates.

"Who?" Kakashi asked; he was, naturally, intrigued at whom his squad member could be bring to help them out.

"My Fracciones; they're basically my personal followers that are nearly as powerful as I am. I can bring them here though the Garganta, a portal that connects this world to Hueco Mundo," Naruto said as he saw Kakashi nod at him.

"Alright then, have your Fracciones come here tomorrow, Naruto," Kakashi said; he jonin suddenly liked their odds in their upcoming battle with Zabuza.

Tsunami called them all in for dinner and had four plates set out for the shinobi; Tsunami also said that her son Inari would be home soon, which explained the extra plate. As they ate, Sasuke eyed Naruto's zanpakuto, lusting for it after seeing the destruction it could do. Naruto told had him and the rest of his team as they were walking towards Tazuna's town that the sword would never listen to anyone's will but his own and that it would reject any other wielder, using very violent means to do so. Sasuke, ignoring Naruto's warning, grab the hilt of the blade and was overwhelmed with terror at the blade's immense power. The power was so great that it shoved it him some 30 feet away from the sword. Sakura tended to him while Naruto just shook his head at the poor attempt. Even though he was shot back, Sasuke still hungered for the blade. Naruto told him that if he tried it again he would break his fingers so he couldn't even grasp it or, if he was in was in a very bad mood, he would gouge the Uchiha's eyes so he couldn't see where the sword was located, which was enough to stop any more of Sasuke's futile attempts.

At this point, Inari came into the room and was surprised to see four strangers in his house with his mother and grandfather.

"Inari, these people are ninja from Konoha. They protected your grandfather as he came back home and have decided to guard him while he finishes the bridge so we can be free of Gato," said Tsunami, smiling at her son.

"Pheh, they're just more fools coming to meet their deaths. Gato is too powerful to be stopped at this point," Inari said ran up to his room.

"What is that kid's problem?" Naruto asked as he thought that the kid would have been happy that his village was getting some help.

"Several years ago, a man named Kaiza saved Inari from drowning. After that day he basically became the boy's father. One day, Kaiza stood up to Gato, and ended up losing his life because of it by being publicly executed. Since then Inari has been somewhat downtrodden," Tazuna said as the sadness in his face clearly showed.

"That's really sad," Sakura said as she felt sorry for the kid; Sasuke, on the other hand, paid no mind to this.

"He'll change his mind when we're done here," Naruto said as he set down his bowl and got ready for bed.

The next day Team 7 found a secluded place in the forest around Tazuna's village to begin their training; before they began, however, Naruto was going to bring in his Fracciones. Above all else, Naruto was excited to see his Fraccion again, though he was didn't really show it at the moment. Naruto proceeded to open up a Garganta using the Descorrer technique; Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke were, not surprisingly, a little freaked out by the sight of a portal opening up out of nowhere.

"Tiraran! Jango! Come on out!" Naruto yelled as he looked into the blackness of the Garganta.

"Naruto-sama!" Tiraran yelled from the Garganta as she lunged out and tackled Naruto.

"Good to see you too, Tiraran," Naruto said; giving a small smile to her once he got out of the Arrancar life-squeesing embrace.

"She was waiting for the time when you would call for us," Jango said as he walked calmly out of the Garganta.

"Glad to see you missed me, Jango," Naruto said after he got up off the ground.

"Everyone, these are my Fracciones, Tiraran and Jango," Naruto said; both Fracciones bowed politely to Team 7.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two. I am Kakashi Hatake, leader of Team 7; these are the other members of the squad, Sakura Haruno and-," Kakashi said before he was cut off by Sasuke.

"Sasuke Uchiha, last of the Uchiha clan," Sasuke said with as smug look on his face as he proclaimed his title.

"Is that supposed to mean something?" Tiraran asked innocently.

"It means that I represent the most powerful clan of ninja there is. You should be more respectful to your betters," Sasuke said as he tried to make himself appear as a big shot; as both Arrancar were at the same level as the high-level Espada, however, it didn't work.

"I haven't seen your skills so you will receive no respect from me," Jango said in his usual calm tone.

"Is that a challenge?" Sasuke asked as he got in Jango's skull mask face.

"Is this what you've dealing with since you returned, Naruto-sama? I already want to kill this little insect in the first few minutes of being close to him," Jango said; he earned a smirk from Naruto and Tiraran when they noticed that Sasuke's anger visibly grew.

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled; he tried to punch Jango in the face, but was caught just a few inches from his target.

"That is very unwise of you. Let me go ahead and make sure you don't use this hand again," Jango said as he began to unsheathed his zanpakuto out with his free hand.

"Let him go, Jango. Though I hate him just as much as you do, he is still on my team and I need him to be back in Konoha… alive... and with all his limbs intact," Naruto said; he noticed that Jango took a deep breath before he let go of Sasuke.

"If you say so, Naruto-sama," Jango said as he sheathed his zanpakuto and stood next to Naruto; Kakashi and Sakura were surprised by both Jango's aggressive nature and how the Arrancar obeyed Naruto's orders so easily.

"Now that the introductions have been made, listen very closely you two. I called you two here because we are dealing with a powerful foe named Zabuza Momochi; the man also has a mysterious accomplice who is aiding him and whose full abilities are currently unknown. Your job is to protect the bridge builder Tazuna when we cannot. Understood?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, sir," both of the Arrancars replied as they bowed to their master.

"Kakashi, you should train Sasuke and Sakura. I'd like to spar with my Fracciones, if you don't mind," Naruto said, to which Kakashi nodded.

"Makes sense. Since you can fly there's really no reason to teach you what I'm about to teach them, anyways," Kakashi said before he told Sakura and Sasuke to follow him to train; he was unaware, obviously, of the nature of Naruto's Flash Step.

"Alright you two, time to make sure my skills don't get rusty," Naruto said before he got into a fighting stance.

"Yay, just like old times," Tiraran said while Jango just popped his neck.

The three soon went at it in a blink of an eye.

[Zabuza's Hideout]

_Meanwhile..._

Zabuza was lying on his bed, bandaged up from his fight with Naruto. He was replaying the fight over and over in his head. The attack the kid used to counter his water jutsu was incredible, having practically torn through it and even managed to injure him. Zabuza cringed at the thought that Naruto hadn't used the full power of that attack; impressive though he may be, however, he still needed to be taken out since he was in the missing-nin's way. He was pulled back into reality when Haku entered his room.

"I managed to find some medicine that will help you heal more easily, Zabuza," Haku said as the Kekkei Genkai wielder took out a container of medicine and gave him a pill.

"This medicine better get me on my feet quick Haku. We need to make sure we take of the bridge builder so we can get paid," Zabuza said before he swallowed the pill and took a sip of water.

"We will. For, though, you need to rest now and gather your strength," Haku said before she left the room to let her master rest.

_A rematch with the kid will be enough for me. Haku will hopefully even the odds,_" Zabuza thought to himself as he went back to sleep, readying himself for tomorrow.

Next Time - The Battle on the Bridge


	9. 8 The Battle on the Bridge

**Chapter 8 - The Battle on the Bridge**

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Tazuna's House, The Land of Waves]

_Current Time..._

Naruto, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion as a result of his practice fight with his Fraccioness, was in the guest room of Tazuna's house when he woke up. As he propped himself up and saw that his two Fracciones were still sleeping. Jango was sitting Indian style with his arms crossed and his back against the wall while he slept; Tiraran, meanwhile, was leaning against Jango's shoulder. Naruto smiled at his Fracciones apparent closeness; this was to be expected, however, as they had been very close even before they had become Arrancar and were actually the closest thing to siblings anyone in Hueco Mundo had ever seen. Naruto silently crept by the Arrancars and tip-toed his way out of the room so as to not to awake them as they had also been left exhausted from the training session.

Naruto made his way down stairs and found Tsunami washing dishes in the kitchen. Tazuna's daughter heard Naruto coming down the stairs and smiled at him when he appeared at the entrance.

"Well there's the sleeping warrior. I was wondering when you were gonna wake up," Tsunami said as she set down another dish before she grabbed another of the dirty one.

"Where is my team and sensei?" Naruto asked as Tsunami set a plate of breakfast out on the table for him.

"They left with my father to guard him while he works on the bridge. Your sensei thought it best for you and your Fracciones to rest up," Tsunami said as Naruto at his meal.

Naruto was finishing his meal when Inari walked in, his eyes still full of anguish and anger. He glanced at Naruto and was about to walk away when Naruto spoke to him.

"There is much anger in you. I understand why now, but you shouldn't be in such sorrow. Your father was a good man who was willing to die in order to stand up for what he believed in. You should be following in his footsteps instead of living in despair and fear," Naruto said; this caused Inari to stop in his tracks.

"My father stood up to a powerful man and died. I will not make such a stupid mistake like that," Inari said to which Naruto shook his head. He realized that the boy was going to need a rude wake-up call, so to speak, if his message to him was to reach him.

"Let me ask you something Inari. Do you that Gato will just go away if you just give up like that? Do you think that crying will make that "man" and his thugs disappear? Then you should think carefully before saying things like that," Naruto said with a very intense look in his eye and a calm and serious tone in his voice.

Naruto continued his little lecture as Inari looked at him, having been left speechless by the ninja's words. Tsunami, while still cleaning the dishes, payed very close attention to the conversation.

"Gato is indeed a powerful man but only because people like you let him have such power; he'll only go away when you are willing to stand up to him and refuse to let him push you around. You may be knocked down and you may even be killed but one thing is clear... you have to try, otherwise your dad will have died in vain," Naruto said.

Naruto then got up and went back up stairs after finishing his little lecture, leaving Inari to reflect on what he just said. When Naruto got to the guest room he opened the door quietly so as to not startle his Fracciones; Naruto, however, made a mistake when shut the door too quickly causing to two Arrancars to wake up from their slumber. Jango woke first, with Tiraran doing the same a second later and, when they did wake up, they looked right at each other before both jumped back in embarassment much to Naruto's amusement. Tiraran blushed heavily while Jango stood up straight and coughed a few times.

"Good morning Naruto-sama," Jango said while he tried to regain his composure.

"Good morning to you both," Naruto said, having decided to not embarrass his Fracciones any more than he had.

"What is the mission today, Naruto-sama?" Tiraran asked as she smiled promptly at her master.

"I guess we have to go to the bridge now and protect the bridge builder. Until he ha-," Naruto said before he was interrupted by the sound of a crash of some sort coming from down stairs.

Naruto held up his hand to keep his Fraccion still before whispering to them to wait for his order. Naruto then tip-toed downstairs to see what was happening. He found Tsunami being held hostage by two bandits while Inari was standing across from them.

"Why are you here?" Inari asked as one of the thugs, one of his eyes covered by an eye patch, held his mother hostage while the other thug, who had white hair, stood in Inari's way.

"Our boss wants us to kidnap you and your mommy so we have a bargaining chip in case that Zabuza guy fails to take out the bridge builder," the eye patch thug said; the flashed a psychotic grin as Inari grew angrier.

"No! I won't let you take her!" Inari said as he charged at the man only to be swatted away by the other thug.

"Play the hero and expect to get killed, kid" the white haired thug said as he brought up his sword as he prepared to kill Inari.

Inari closed his eyes and waited for the coming blow to end him before he suddeny heard the sound of a painful grunt and the collapse of a body to the floor. Inari opened his eyes and saw Naruto standing in front of him, his sword unsheahed, and the white haired thug on the floor dead, a stab wound located right where the thug's heart used to be.

"So you finally decided to stand up and fight, huh?" Naruto asked as he flashed a reassuring smiled at Inari who, not surprisingly, was shocked at seeing the scene before him.

"You little gaki!" the eye patch thug yelled before he tossed Tsunami to the floor and charged at Naruto.

Before he could even three steps towards Naruto, however, he stopped dead in his tracks with a pained expression on his face. Before anyone other than Naruto could react a black-colored blade suddenly pierced through the low-life's chest; once the sword was sowrd retracted from the thug's chest he collapsed to the ground, dead with a diagonal slash across his back to go with the stab wound. Jango and Tiraran, who were obviously the ones who took him down, stood behind the thug's corpse as they sheathed their zanpakutos.

"No other threat is in the vicinity of the house," Jango said in his calm and calculating manner.

Naruto went to check on Tsunami, only repsonding to Jango's statement once he confirmed that she was unharmed.

"Very well, then; you and Tiraran are to stay here and keep it that way. I'm going to the bridge as I suspect Zabuza and his associate are attacking my team and the bridge builder as we speak," Naruto, said as he walked towards the door.

"Please be careful out there, Naruto," Inari said as he stood next to his mother.

"You don't need to worry, Inari; you'll see me again," Naruto said before giving him a thumbs up.

The shinobi then proceeded to the bridge's construction site. As Naruto Flash-stepped towards the bridge he felt something he hadn't felt since he left Las Noches: excitement. Naruto felt the adrenaline pumping through him, and he loved it. He couldn't wait to get in on this fight as he now had a chance to display his skills. He could tell that his zanpakuto was also itching for a fight as he continued Shunpoing towards the battle.

[Construction Site for the Bridge, Land of Waves]

_Meanwhile..._

Things were not boding well for the rest of Team 7. Kakashi was battling Zabuza head on in zero visibility as he had been caught in the Swordsmen's Hidden Mist Jutsu. Sasuke was trying to fight Haku but was caught in her Crystal Ice Mirror jutsu. All the while Sakura was stuck giving what protection she could to Tazuna while the others fought though, to be prefectly blunt, Tazuna would die if either Kakashi or Sasuke fell in battle if Naruto doesn't arrive soon since Sakura no where near as capable in battle as her three teammates.

Zabuza swung down at Kakashi only to be blocked by a kunai in his hand.

"Where's the blonde kid, Kakashi? He's the one I really wanna fight right now," Zabuza said as he added pressure to his sword in an attempt to overpower Kakashi.

"He'll be here soon enough, Zabuza; until then, however, you'll just have to settle for me," Kakashi said as he broke out of the power struggle and went on the attack.

Sasuke, meanwhile, now looked like a human pincushion with all the senbon needles that now stuck out of him courtesy of Haku. Even now the Uchiha struggled to his feet in his current state though his arrongance was still as strong as it had been for the past five years.

"Why don't you just stay down? You will only get knocked down again and if you keep struggling I'll have no choice but to kill you," Haku said, as she was getting frustrated by her opponent's persistence.

"Shut up! An elite like myself will always prevail in the end," Sasuke said to which Haku sighed.

"If that's two you feel then I guess reasoning with you would be pointless," Haku said as she pulled out even more needles.

Haku threw a hand full of these needles at the Uchha which would've put the "prodigy" into a death trance had something not blokced the needles before they could hit Sasuke. Haku gasped at the sight of Naruto standing in the way of the needles, which were now on the ground in front of him; he had apparently blocked them with his own body without getting a scratch on him. The Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman sighed, as if he had been reluctant to save his teammate.

"As much as I didn't want to save him, the civilian council back home would have my head if I let their precious Uchiha die. But at least I finally get to see what your made of," Naruto said as a smile crossed his face.

"You hurt Zabuza-sama. You will pay for that," Haku said before she threw another barrage of needles right at Naruto.

The needles collided with Naruto only to dropped onto the ground. Each needle simple made a "ding" sound when it hit with Naruto's body; not only did were the senbons unable to break skin the weapons were not even capable of tearing Naruto's outfit, which still looked spotless. Haku stopped her attack and looked at him with shock, though her mask hid her face.

"How are you doing that?" Haku asked as she had, not surprisingly, never see someone so durable in battle.

Naruto, before he replied, found himself going into a flashback of his training at Las Noches...

_**Flashback**_

[Unspecified Training Room, Las Noches, Hueco Mundo]

_Five years before Naruto's return..._

Naruto stood 10 yards from Nnoitra who had his usual grin sprouting on his face. Each drew their weapons and got prepared for battle with such precision that it appeared as if they were performing a choreographed dance.

"You ready, kid?" Nnoitra asked as he placed his scythe blade on his shoulders.

"Yes," Naruto said with a serious tone his voice.

"Then you can have the first shot," Nnoitra said before he made a hand motion for Naruto to come at him.

Naruto charged at Gilga and was soon above his head. He then proceeded to bring his blade down with extreme force. It cut across Nnoitra, but only created sparks as it came down, not being able to cut through the Espada. Naruto landed on his feet and jumped back away from Nnoitra. Nnoitra checked for a scar but found nothing. He then brought up his scythe and swung down at Naruto. Naruto took the hit and sparks flew, until Nnoitra's attack reached the boy's abdomen and a small cut. Naruto gasped and clutched his side as Nnoitra rested his scythe on his shoulder once again and shook his head.

"You have to get much stronger than that if you going to have a tough Hierro like mine," Nnoitra said as he stooding over a kneeling Naruto.

"Yes Nnoitra-sama," Naruto said as he bowed his head before the Espada.

_**End Flashback**_

"My teachers made sure I would be able to withstand any attack thrown my way. Now that I've answered your question, let us talk in the open; I'm getting a headache just staring at all these mirrors," Naruto said before he seemingly vanished into thin air.

Haku tried to locate him but was soon preoccupied when she saw that her mirrors suddenly shattered. Haku attemped to fix the broken mirrors but it take long for her to realize what was going on and, more importantly, that she was too slow to stop Naruto, who refused to let up his Shunpo, from destroying mirror after mirror. Haku barely managed to escape the last mirror before it was destroyed as well; Haku landed on her feet and prepared for a fight but was, to her horror, caught by her throat by Naruto. He lifted her off her feet and stared her in the eyes.

"Damn it Naruto, you should have just left her to me." Sasuke said as he got to his feet.

"Not now, Sasuke," Naruto said while he was still clutching Haku by the throat.

"I order you to let me finish her off you ba-," Sasuke said before Naruto sent the Uchiha flying with a backhand strike.

"Such an annoyance," Naruto said before he turned his attention back on Haku.

"What are you going to do to me?" Haku asked as she was, understandably, terrified of what a powerful opponent like Naruto would do to her. What he actually did surprised her, however.

"Nothing," Naruto replied before he released his grip on Haku; the Konoha shinobi turned his attention to the fight between Zabuza and Kakashi.

"Why? You had me right for the kill so why did spare me?" Haku asked; she was, naturally, curious as to why he would just let her live despite what she had done to his teammate.

"Because when you attacked me, I followed the spots you aimed for and I took a moment before that to see where you had struck my teammate. You didn't aim for anything vital in the human body. You weren't trying to kill me or Sasuke," Naruto said as he saw Haku look away in apparent shame.

"Killing isn't really my style," Haku said as if she was a little disappointed with her "weakness".

"The way I see it, you didn't try to kill me so I have no reason to kill you. Now if you don't mind it would appear as if my sensei is in need of my help," Naruto said as he disappeared yet again, leaving Haku to her thoughts.

Zabuza and Kakashi, meanwhile, were still locked in a intense battle. Zabuza brought up his sword to attack Kakashi yet again only to be blocked by Naruto's zanpakuto. Naruto smirked at the swordsman who, not to anyone's surprise at this point, was smirking underneath his bandages.

"You ready to finish what we started, kid?" Zabuza asked as he crossed swords with Naruto.

"What do you think? Let's finish this," Naruto said as he allowed his adrenaline to take over for this showdown.

Next Time – The Mist Settles


	10. 9 The Mist Settles

**Chapter 9 - The Mist Settles**

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Bridge Construction Site, Land of Waves]

_Current Time..._

The clanging of metal was heard throughout the bridge as Naruto and Zabuza continued to clash. Zabuza, much to Naruto's delight, was doing much better this time around as Naruto block a lot more than in his last encounter with the Swordsman. While Zabuza was taking everything that Naruto was unleashing upon him the missing-nin could tell that his opponent was still holding back a lot of his strength. While that annoyed Zabuza to an extent he knew how much trouble he would've been in if Naruto went all out. His thoughts were interrupted by another vertical swing from Naruto. Zabuza managed to block the blade in the nick of time before he jumped back several yards to give himself some room to catch his breath.

"Not bad. You've definitely gotten better since last time," Naruto said as he rested his blade on his shoulder.

"I've had time to rethink my strategy a bit. Though I can still tell that you're still holding back quite a lot," Zabuza said with a heavy breath as he had his blade rest on the ground.

"If I didn't this fight would've been over rather quickly. No offense to your skills, mind you," Naruto said; considering the opponent he was facing the blonde tried to not undersell Zabuza's kenjutsu abilities.

"None taken. I'm equally impressed that you dismantled Haku's ice mirrors; I've never seen anyone do that before," Zabuza said; Zabuza, having trained his associate himself, knew that she was actually more dangerous than he was with her mirrors being one her deadliest abilities since they were supposedly unbreakable.

"You should be proud of Haku; she is an impressive shinobi herself with that kind of power. To be honest I don't want to have to take away her father figure from her," Naruto said only to hear a scoff from Zabuza.

"Some father. I've only seen her as a tool, not a daughter, the whole time," Zabuza said to which Naruto shook his head.

"She sees you as a father and if you really wanna fight to the bitter end it will only cause her great pain," Naruto said as he looked to Haku who was watching the battle with fear clearly in her eyes.

"I'm a shinobi and it only makes sense that I fight to the end; this is something she'll understand when she's older. So you ready to end this or not?" Zabuza asked as he lifted his sword off the ground; Naruto sighed as he twirled his sword one time in a circle.

The two began their clashed swords yet again with the pace picking up with each swing. Zabuza made one vertical swing with just about everything he had... which missed Naruto, creating a huge crack on the ground instead. Naruto used Zabuza's prone position to his advantage by stabbing Zabuza's left arm rendering it useless. Zabuza grunted as he recuperated himself. Haku was horrified by this and started to run to Zabuza's aid only to be stopped by Kakashi. Haku could only look on helplessly as her adoptive father tried to continue fighting with only one arm. Zabuza was swinging wildly now as his broken left arm meant that he couldn't control his sword properly. Naruto side-stepped everthing Zabuza threw at him and struck the missing-nin the moment he began slowing down. Just as with his previous attack Naruto struck the other arm and rendered it useless.

Zabuza's sword hit the ground with a huge clang, which sounded like an explosion in the otherwise silent construction site. Zabuza staggered as his breathing became even heavier as he stood staggering, both his of arms now completely limp at his sides. Naruto just looked at the former Swordsmen of the Mist with an emotionless face as if waiting for his opponent to decide his own fate. Zabuza didn't say a word to Naruto; he only nodded before closed his eyes in anticipation of his own death. Naruto obliged his opponent by bringing the tip of his zanpakuto to Zabuza's heart and piercing it. Zabuza gasped and coughed up blood before he stumbled over. Naruto caught him and laid him on his back before he nodded to Kakashi who let Haku go to the dying Zabuza. Haku rushed to Zabuza's side and began to cry.

"Zabuza-sama, please don't go!" Haku said with tears streaming down her face as the blood poured out of Zabuza.

"Don't grieve Haku. Our time together might be over, but you've still got plenty of time left. Take care of yourself, stay strong, and I know you'll go on to do great things," Zabuza said, while smiling underneath his bandages at his adoptive daughter who continued to cry.

"Hopefully the afterlife will be kind to you Zabuza," Naruto said to which Zabuza gave a small chuckle.

"I wouldn't hold my breath, kid. I haven't exactly been the nicest person in the world. I guess anything's possible in the end, though," Zabuza said as his eyes closed; a few seconds later his breathing stopped, marking Zabuza's end.

Haku was now crying even harder and, as if she was subconsciously reaching out, started to cry into Naruto's chest. Naruto was a little shocked but he put his hands on her back and patted her in a attempt to comfort the grieving Haku. Sasuke had regained consciousness from Naruto's backhand attack and wondered what he had missed when he saw Naruto holding Haku while Zabuza was lying dead on the floor. Kakashi had his head down as a act of respect for the fallen swordsman. Then, from out of nowhere, everyone heard slow clapping coming from the other end of the bridge. Everyone had a scowl etched on their face when they saw Gato standing there with a small army for hired thugs.

"Looks like Zabuza and his that little bitch couldn't get the job done. Oh well; at least I don't have to pay him for his services," Gato said; the little man began to cruelly laugh at the death of Zabuza's while his henchmen did the same.

"Bastard!" Haku said; she was about charge at Gato before Naruto seized her arm.

"I'll handle this piece of trash, Haku-chan," Naruto said; Naruto noted that that Haku blushed at the suffix added to her name.

"Hang on, kid. Look I know you're the one that defeated Zabuza so how about you leave your teammates and come work for me? I can pay you handsomely and-" Gato said before he and his thugs were suddenly being suffocated by an invisible force.

"You are either very pathetic or very stupid if you're actually willing to think for one second that I would work for a scumbag like you," Naruto said as he refused to let up on the pressure of his reiatsu.

"What is he?" Haku asked as she looked on with Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke.

"He's human; he just has a power much greater than anything else in the ninja world," Kakashi said, getting a nod from Haku who was still watching of the power shown by Naruto in awe.

_A power that should be mine,_" Sasuke selfishly, and unrealistically, thought to himself; the Uchiha's anger grew as Naruto continued to keep Gato and his thugs pinned to the ground.

"P-please ha-have mercy," Gato said as Naruto now stood above him, zanpakuto in hand.

"I can think of a thousand bastards here who deserve mercy. Unfortunately, for you anyways, you nowhere on the list," Naruto said before he drove his blade right through Gato's skull, killing him instantly.

Naruto then released the pressure he was applying and let the hired thugs get to their feet. They were all full of fear after witnessing their boss's death. They looked at Naruto, fearing he would end them next. Naruto simply gave them a straight face.

"Boo," Naruto said and in an instant the group yelled in terror and ran off of the bridge. Naruto smirked and sheathed his zanpakuto. Naruto then walked back to his group, who were still just staring at him.

"I'd say this mission is just about wrapped up," Naruto said to which Kakashi nodded at him.

"Yes, but what should we do with her?" Kakashi asked as he looked over at Haku who was back near Zabuza's side.

"She'll come with us when this is over. Unless you have an objection to that?" Naruto asked; before Kakashi could answer, however, Sakura decided to make herself heard.

"Hell No! That tried to kill us and nearly did with Sasuke-kun. I am not having her with us," Sakura said before she found herself face-to-face with Naruto.

"I'm sorry, Haruno. I don't seem to recall asking you for your opinion on a matter that doesn't concern you; however, if you're feeling brave and also feel like putting down a girl who just lost someone dear to her, then by all means continue," Naruto said to which Sakura shrunk down. The kunoichi also felt a little guilty about what she said and decided to remain quiet for the rest of the day.

"It's okay, Naruto; she has no reason to trust me," Haku said as Naruto nodded at her; Haku still gave Sakura an angry glance, however, which made the pink-haired girl even more ashamed of herself.

"Well, in any casr, the bridge is still unfinished so we still have to stick around. Though I think the threat level has definitely gone down by a lot," Kakashi said while giving an eye smile as he and his team of genin all went back to their post to protect Tazuna.

The group continued to protect Tazuna while he worked on the bridge. When they weren't protecting him, they were at his house hanging around. Naruto and the group also buried Zabuza on a hilltop, his sword being placed next to his tombstone. Naruto introduced Haku to Jango and Tiraran, the latter of who was overjoyed of meeting someone new. Naruto also got to hang around with Inari for a while and pretty much became an older brother to the boy.

When the bridge was finally finished, the group gathered up their things and made their way to the bridge. When they arrived, everyone in the village was waiting for them. Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari were at the front of the group.

"Our entire village is indebted to you for all that you have done. You are welcomed back anytime," Tazuna said as Tsunami smiled at the group.

"Will we ever see you again, Naruto?" Inari asked before Naruto put a hand on his head.

"You can count on it," Naruto said while smiling with Inari as he turned to leave.

"Dad, we haven't named the bridge yet," Tsunami said as the group left the village.

"Oh you're right. Well, how about, in honor of that kid, we call it 'The Great Naruto Bridge'," Tazuna said who got an approving yell from the village.

"Looks like you made that village a better place, Naruto-sama," Tiraran said as she walked with Naruto on his right and Jango on his left.

"Yes, but everyone here helped in some way. The rest is up to them now," Naruto said while he put his hands in his pockets.

"What will happen to me?" Haku, who was on the far side of the group, asked.

"We have to report to the Hokage about the mission. He will decide what will happen," Kakash said; made Haku a little anxious.

"Don't worry Haku-chan; the Hokage is not as bad as you think," Naruto said before giving her a comforting smile.

_Enjoy that smile, loser. Once I get the council to make you handover your power, you will be nothing, and I will once again be on top,_" Sasuke thought to himself as he mentally smiled at the plans he had for Naruto; he was completely oblivious to reality at that moment, though that would not be the case for long...

Next Time – The Chunin Exams


	11. 10 The Chunin Exams

**Chapter 10- Chunin Exams**

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Konoha, Land of Fire]

_Current Time..._

Naruto, Team 7, Naruto's fracciones, and Haku had just returned to the village when an Anbu arrived and told them to report to a meeting with the Hokage and the two councils. Naruto groaned at this as he now had to deal with the civilian council that had treated him like crap before his departure seven years ago; he didn't mind dealing with the shinobi council because they had treated him with a lot more respect.

Naruto and his group arrived as the civilian council had already been trying to have Sarutobi do something about the young Uzumaki, only to have their words fell on deaf ears; they couldn't do anyhing about it since Naruto was now a full-fledged shinobi and any direct actions towards him would responsibility of the shinobi counci.

"Team 7 reporting back from a successful mission," Naruto said which earned him the attention of everyone in the room.

"So we've heard. Before we go any further, however, who exactly are the three people behind you, Naruto?" Sarutobi asked after he noticed Tiraran, Jango, and Haku.

"Well, the two behind me are Jango and Tiraran. Back in Hueco Mundo, which is where I got my training, these two became my personal followers, which are known as Fracciones. They fight, defend and assist me in any way they can. The girl to my left is Haku, the adopted daughter of Zabuza Momochi, who we ran into on our mission. She has decided to become a shinobi of Konoha," Naruto said; this caused both councils to talk amongst themselves in their respective groups.

"We of the civilian council want your two escorts to be transferred to the Uchiha and the girl be placed the CRA act," a Haruno woman said; the civilian councilmember was about to recieve a retort from an angry Naruto until Jango beat him to it.

"That impudent runt is not strong enough for us to follow him. We follow Naruto-sama's orders and Naruto-sama's orders alone," Jango said while Tiraran nodded in agreement.

"And I'm not going to be under the CRA to be married off to some man I don't even like," Haku said; she received glares from the some in the civilian council as a result.

"You will do as we say or you can find yourself out of this village," said a large civilian councilman; before he say anything else, however, Shikaku Nara, one of the shinobi in the room, decided to get involved in the conversation.

"Hold on a minute; since when have you of the civilian council been allowed to interfere in shinobi affairs? This girl is a shinobi and the other two are not from Konoha so you have no business deciding any their fates," the Nara clansman said; he received voices of agreement from his fellow shinobi.

Tensions between the two councils, which had gotten worse over time since the end of the last war, almost came to a head until Naruto, who had had enough of the civilian council and their hatred of him, decided his presence known again.

"I think it's time to reveal my heritage, Old man," Naruto; the old Kage nodded in agreement.

"I believe you're right, Naruto," Sarutobi said, which confused most the members of both councils as well as Sakura, Sasuke, and Haku.

"Hokage-sama, what does he mean by his heritage?" Koharu asked as the Hokage took another puff of his pipe.

"As you all know, Minato and Kushina were married and were due to have a child around the time of the Kyubi's attack. Officially, the report stated that their child died during the Kyubi's rampage. That, however, was a lie. Their child, a son, did survive," Sarutobi explained.

The eyes from members of both councils widen at the realization of what this meant.

"No! Then that means that Naruto's-," Homura said before Naruto finished his sentence.

"A Namikaze and an Uzumaki; in other words, the last of two powerful clans. The old man already showed me the Namikaze estate and I also understand that I fall under the CRA to resurrect my both of my clans," Naruto said; he flashed a smirk upon seeing the civilian council members sweating a little.

"Even if you are the last of those two clans, you will still obey our orders and you will surrender your fracciones to the Uchiha now!" a civilian council member said; for his defiance the man was kicked into the wall by Naruto.

"I will not relieve my fracciones to that spoiled punk. And as for Haku she will now be under the protection of the Namikaze and the Uzumaki clan. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to move into my parent's estate," Naruto said as Haku and his fracciones left Sasuke was fuming at Naruto and would have attacked him if he wasn't stopped by Kakashi; that was Sasuke's sake, however, since Naruto probably would've crushed him.

"Hokage-sama, you must restrain to boy! He letting his power go to his head," Koharu said only for Sarutobi to scowled at her.

"Like you and the rest of the civilian council did in treating the boy so harshly? Naruto has power already and he doesn't abuse it like you, so I trust him. I would actually place my trust in him sooner than I would in you civilian. Now unles you have any more issues to discuss this meeting is adjourned," Sarutobi said.

Every member of the civilian council was now angry at having been defied by a kid, the kyubi brat no less, and having to let him get away with it. The shinobi council members, on the hand, smirked at seeing the reactions of their civilian colleagues; after having to deal with a civilian council that had been gaining more and more power over the years they were glad to see that someone was strong enough to keep them in check. The fact that it was Naruto, whose treatment by the civilian council was a known fact, made this moment all the more sweeter for the shinobi.

[Namikaze Estate]

_Meanwhile..._

While Naruto, Haku, Jango, and Tiraran headed to the estate, the latter three left in awe of the immense size of the place. Jango was calmly walking around admiring the craftsmanship of the estate while Tiraran was just running around saying it was awesome. Naruto found the master bedroom and set his stuff down. Haku found a room close to his and began unpacking. Once everyone was set up, Naruto got some food and cooked a meal for his houseguest. Jango and Tiraran had now turned in for the night leaving Naruto and Haku alone.

"That was really good Naruto," Haku said as she putt her dishes in the sink to be washed.

"Thanks Haku. It's been a while since I've cooked so I'm glad I haven lost my touch," Naruto said as he washed the plates.

"I should be the one thanking you," Haku said as Naruto stopped washing and looked at her.

"For what Haku?" Naruto asked though he knew what she was going to say.

"For letting me come to this village and having a home. When Zabuza died, I thought I was going to have to wander around the world alone for the rest of my life. You decided to let me come with you, however, and you were willing stuck up for me in front of your council. I just feel really indebted to you," Haku said as she blushed.

"It's just me being me. I couldn't just leave you out there alone andnot knowing what you were going to do next," Naruto said before was then hugged by Haku.

"Still, thank you for everything," Haku said; she then kissed his cheek before letting go of him and heading to bed.

"Goodnight," Haku said.

"Goodnight," Naruto said rubbing his cheek and smiling as things were now looking up for him.

[The streets of Konoha]

_A Week Later..._

Naruto and the rest of Team 7 had been informed that they would be taking part in this year's Chūnin Exams. Naruto and co. were excited to have an opportunity to improve their standing in the shinobi ranks. Naruto had been training with his fracciones to keep his skills sharp. Today, though, he was walking with Haku to show her around the village. After about an hour of walking Naruto heard the voice of a kid and, based on what was being said, it sounded as if there was a scuffle going on. Naruto and Haku looked around the corner to see a little boy, whom Naruto recognized as Konohamaru, being held up by a guy wearing a black outfit with a black cat hat, purple face paint, and a bandaged item secured on his back. Next to him was a blonde girl with our pigtails; she wore simple white outfit with a red sash and fishnet undershirt. On her back was a folded fan that was as tall as, if not taller than, the girl herself.

"Let me go you makeup wearing freak," Konohamaru said; the guy holding him got even angrier after hearing that comment.

"I'll teach you some manners kid," the guy said as he clutched Konohamaru even harder.

"Cut it out, Kankuro; we need to meet up with Gaara," the blonde said as she tried to stop him.

"Quiet, Temari; this kid needs to learn to respect his betters," Kankuro said as he pulled his hand back to punch Konohamaru.

But, as he threw his punch, he was shocked by it being caught by Naruto who then locked eyes with the surprised Kankuro.

"Maybe you should pick on someone your own size, coward," Naruto said as he tightened his grip on Kankuro's hand.

Kankuro was in so much pain that he was forced to release Konohamaru. When he did, Naruto tossed him back with ease. Enraged, Kankuro, pulled his baggage off of his back.

"You can't use that here,Kankuro. What if Gaara finds out?" Temari asked she obviously afraid of this Gaara character from what Naruto could tell.

"He won't know about this. Besides, I can't really back down from this guy," Kankuro said before he saw Naruto smirk.

"Bring out your little puppet, then. I could use it for firewood when I'm done beating you," Naruto said to Kankuro; he then took a moment to enjoy Kankuro's terrified expression as he unsheathed his zanpakuto.

"_How the hell does know about Crow?_" Kankuro thought to himself as he considered his options.

"Kankuro, what do you think you're doing?" a figure said; this made Kankuro stop dead in his tracks.

Naruto turned to see a boy hanging upside down from a nearby tree. The boy had red hair, a brown outfit, and a gourd that was on his back. On his forehead he had the word "love" written in Kanji.

"Gaara, I-I was just…" Kankuro said before he was cut off by Gaara.

"Shut up before I kill you," Gaara said; he then turned his attention to Naruto.

"I take it you guys are from the Sand Village. Are you here for the chunnin exams?" Naruto said.

Gaara just nodded his head.

"You seem strong. What is your name?" Gaara asked as Temari and Kankuro stood next to him.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki. And who might I ask is wanting to know?" Naruto asked as Haku now walked up next to him.

"I am Gaara. This is my brother Kankuro and my sister Temari. I look forward to fighting you in the exams," Gaara said as he saw Naruto nod at him.

"Likewise," Naruto said before Gaara and his siblings turned and left.

Konohamaru went up to Naruto once the three Suna shinobi left.

"Thanks for the save, boss," Konohamaru said while grinning at Naruto.

"No problem," Naruto said as he smiled back.

Naruto had met Konohamaru when he was training sometime before he went to the Land of Waves. Konohamaru wanted to fight him to prove he was strong enough to become Hokage. The kid failed but Naruto encouraged him to keep training and that he would become a great shinobi if he did. Konohamaru was excited to hear those words and promised to train hard alongside his teammates Udon and Moegi; Naruto has been like a big brother to him ever since.

"Hey boss, who's the pretty girl next to you?" Konohamaru asked which caused Haku to blush a little.

"Her name is Haku. She came to Konoha a week ago and was just made a chūnin due to her skill," Naruto said.

Haku bowed politely; the younger ones did the same as a sign of respect.

"So, is she your girlfriend?' Konohamaru said; he flashed a sleazy smile when Naruto and Haku blushed.

"We haven't known each other that long, kid," Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Gotcha. Well, I gotta meet Ebisu-sensei for some training now so I'll see ya later, boss," Konohamaru said as his ran off.

"Shall we continue the tour?" Naruto asked; Haku nodded and the two spent the rest of the day walking around the village.

_The Next Day..._

Naruto and his teammates were walking through the corridors of a building to head to where the first part of the Chūnin Exams. They saw a group of people standing outside the door which was where the exam was supposedly going to take place. Naruto noticed that there was a genjutsu surrounding the door number to keep participants from knowing the first part of the exam was really going to take place. He quickly covered his teammate's mouths and let them away to keep them from blurting out there was a genjutsu which would help reduce the amount of competition they would have to face. Unfortunately another team was able to notice Team 7's actions and followed them. That team consisted of a boy with very thick eyerows wearing a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers, a girl with a pink outfit who had her hair held up in two buns, and a boy with long brown hair and the featureless white eyes of the Hyuga clan.

Naruto's group started to make its way across another hall when they were stopped by a voice.

"Hold it right there. How did you know it was an illusion?" the voice from the group that was following them said.

"It was obvious that there was a genjutsu around the door and, by the way, isn't it kind of rude to ask questions without knowing someone's name first," Naruto said as the group looked at him.

"I am Neji Hyuga and there are my teammates, Rock Lee and Tenten. We are competing in this year's Chūnin Exams as well," Neji said as he locked eyes with Naruto.

"I see. Then I'll see you three in the exams," Naruto said before he and his team turned to walk away, leaving Neji to look on at Naruto with a great deal of interest.

Naruto and his team made their way to a waiting area full of ninja who were also partaking in the Chūnin Exams.

"Wow, the competition looks tough for this thing," Sakura said as she noted the large number of shinobi present.

"Well now the whole groups here," a voice said; Team 7, having recognized the voice, turned to the source of the voice.

It was none other than Kiba who entered the room along with Team 8, which consisted of Kiba himself, Hinata and Shino, as well as Team 10. Ino, who was part of the latter team, ran up to Sasuke and hugged him just to annoy Sakura. While the two kunoichi got into a little arguement Naruto noticed that Hinata was there standing next to Shino.

"Hey Hinata-chan, how have you been?" Naruto asked; Hinata blushed upon realizing that he had noticed her.

"I-I'm fine Naruto-kun. How has your team been doing?" Hinata said as she tried not to fidget with her fingers.

"Eh, its fine. Though I wish I could have someone I could actually get along with like you, Hinata-chan," Naruto said; the young Uzumaki tried to resist laughing when Hinata blushed further as a result of Naruto's comment.

"Thank you for the comment, Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she was now unable to stop fidgeting with her fingers.

"Hey Hinata, I hope this isn't too forward, but I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me when this thing is over?" Naruto asked which caused the girl's eye's widened in shock.

"_Go… on a date… with Naruto-kun?!_" Hinata thought as she opened her mouth to respond but instead felt herself going faint before she did so.

"Hinata!" Naruto said as he caught her before she hit the ground.

"This situation is such a drag," Shikamaru said while Choji, who stood alongside his longtime friend, looked on at Naruto and Hinata.

"You guys might wanna stop drawing attention to yourselves. Some of these guys can get a bit unhinged by such outbursts," a figure that appeared before the nine genin said.

The figure was a boy a little older than they; he wore glasses, a purple shirt, and a Konoha headband.

"And who might you be?" Shino asked having decided to make himself known in the group.

"My name is Kabuto Yakushi, and you'd be wise to take my advice on this," Kabuto said as he joined in the group.

"I take it you're speaking from experience?" Naruto asked before Kabuto rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, this is actually my sixth time taking the exam," Kabuto said shocking everyone except Naruto and Sasuke with his words.

"Wow, you must really suck at this to have failed that many times," Sasuke said while he flashed a smirk at Kabuto.

"Yea, but I've managed to scrounge enough data for these," Kabuto said while he pulled out a deck of cards.

"What are those?" Shikamaru asked as he eyed the cards in Kabuto's hand.

"These are Ninja info cards. They can give you the stats on anybody whose a village shinobi; these particular cards were updated a few days ago so the info on them should have everything I might need to know. Got anybody in mind that you would like to know about?" Kabuto asked as he shuffled his deck.

"I do," Neji said as he entered the room with his team.

"I want to know about Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto noticed that Hinata had locked eyes with Neji for a moment. He was surprised by the sudden change in Hinata's mood; it almost appeared as though there was some bad blood between her and the other Hyuga.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Kabuto said before pulling out a card.

"Genin, left for seven years to train with an unidentified mentor, came back extremely powerful. Has only been on D and C-rank missions, but on a C-rank mission encountered Zabuza Momochi and actually _killed _the swordsman."

At that everyone who was not on Team 7 was wide eyed at this news. Naruto took on an A-ranked criminal who was a member of the Seven Swordsman of Mist, the infamous Demon of the Hidden Mist no less, and _won_. Their shock was directed elsewhere, however, when a huge plume of smoke emerged. Out of the smoke appeared a tall man wearing all black who also had s scarred chin.

"All maggots, listen up! My name is Ibiki, and I am your proctor for the first part of the Chūnin Exams," Ibiki said as everyone now prepared themselves for the exams...

Next Time – The Forest of Death


	12. 11 Forest of Death

(Rocker1600 Note: In the original version of this chapter, Sasuke's anger issues were completely fixed; while I also intend to fix his anger problems, I intend to do it with more than one chapter. This means that this chapter will be the most heavily modified of the originals.)

**Chapter 11- Forest of Death**

Disclaimer: Still applies.

Team 7 passed the first part of the Chūnin Exams. The instructor, Ibiki, explained that it was a simple test and that any cheating would be met with immediate expulsion. Naruto answered the questions well since he had found tons of scrolls at the Namikaze estate; this would take Ibiki by surprise later on when he read the Uzumaki's test. After everyone was done with the first nine questions and ready for the final question, Ibiki explained that they could try to answer the final question, but if they got it wrong they immediately failed the test and, if that wasn't bad enough, they could never take the test again. If, however, they chose not to answer it, they could leave and try again next time. When no one stood up, Ibiki told them that they had all passed, shocking everyone in the room. Ibiki explained that a ninja has to take risks in order to complete a mission, further proving it by showing the scars on his head and by the fact that he had two Chūnin who knew the answers pose as participants which would have allowed the genin to cheat assuming they coudl avoid getting caught.

The moment Ibiki finished his explaination, one of the window broke as a figure broke in and dropped a banner down. It woman with purple hair that looked like a pineapple and brown pupil-less eyes who wore a tan trench coat with a fishnet shirt that went down to her thighs along with an orange short skirt.

"All right, you runts, my name is Anko Mitarashi and I'm the proctor for the second part of the Chūnin Exams," Anko said as she stuck a pose in front of the group of genin.

"_Just when I thought that the people in this village couldn't get any weirder_," Naruto thought to himself while the whole room kept quiet.

"You're early again Anko," Ibiki said, causing a sweat drop to emerge on Anko's face.

"Shut up, Ibiki! Anyways, everyone follow me to the second part of the exam," Anko said as she lead the group out of the building, while noting the unusually large number of remaining genin.

They walked until they got to a large forest with a fence going around the entire area. To most of the genin, the forest appeared very intimidating; Naruto, however, simply smirked at the ight of the immense forest. He knew nothing inside this place would be a challenge, not after being in the harsh terrain of the hellhole that was called Hueco Mundo. He did have teammates that he had to take care of that was only a minor setback that could be easily overcome in this part of the exam. He was brought out of thoughts when Anko began to speak to the large group.

"Alright kids, this the Forty-Fourth Training Ground, but most have come to know it as the Forest of Death. In this part of the exam you and your team will be given a heaven or earth scroll. Your job is to find another team with a different scroll and take it from them. Once you have both, you must make your way to the tower located in the center of the forest. Oh and until you reach the tower with both scrolls you cannot open the scrolls," Anko said as most genin looked at the forest that had a ominous feeling emanating about it.

"Sounds like fun," Naruto said which got him some looks from the most of the other participants.

"It's not as easy as it seems. You'll be going against your fellow ninja and there are also nasty creatures in the forest, all to keep you from succeeding," Anko said with a toothy grin on her face.

"Like I said, sounds like fun," Naruto said leaving most of the competitors with the impression that he was insane.

Anko smirked as she disappeared from sight only to reappear behind Naruto, kunai knife pressed against his neck; to the surprise of the other genin Naruto wasn't fazed in the least by this threatening move.

"Guys like you are usually the first to die. I don't care if you were the one to take down Zabuza Momochi; if you get cocky in here you'll meet your end," Anko said. Naruto simply smiled at her as if nothing had happened..

"I don't die so easily and this place is a picnic compared to the area I were I stayed for seven years. So bring on your so called 'Forest of Death'," Naruto said; this got some chuckling out of Anko.

"I like you, kid. You're not afraid to stand your ground in front of an authority figure and you've also got a strong feel about you. Hope you make it through this part," Anko said as she put her kunai away.

"I'll see on the other side, then," Naruto said as Anko went back to front of the group.

"Okay, come forward to get a scroll for your team; after that report to your assigned gate and wait for the starting signal," Anko said as the group of genin got in line for a scroll.

Naruto got an earth scroll, which meant that he needed a heaven scroll to pass this part of the with his team. Team 7 then took their positons at their appropriate gate. When the horn sounded to start the second part of the exam Team 7 ran into the forest to gain some ground. After running for a while they decided to stop and formulate a plan of how to get the other scroll needed.

"Okay, we need to locate a team with a scroll opposite of ours. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get to the tower," Naruto said, having planned out a method of search and attack.

"Why don't you just leave the fighting to me and we'll be done in no time, loser," Sasuke said.

Naruto rubbed his temples at this comment; he had had enough of this nonsense from Sasuke, which had gotten worse since that little confrontation he had with the council a week earlier, and decided that he wouldn't stand for Sasuke's attitude anymore.

"That's it; were settling this now Sasuke. You stay here, Sakura, and try to keep yourself hidden," Naruto said as he seized Sasuke by the shirt and flash stepped away.

Naruto brought Sasuke to a empty and quiet part of the forest. He didn't want any interruptions during this talk.

"What was that for, loser?" Sasuke asked; Naruto simply looked at him with an unemotional expression before he said anything.

"Sasuke, I know you;re seeking revenge against your brother and do I believe he should face justice, but I want to ask you one simple question," Naruto said as Sasuke glared at him.

"And what might that be?" Sasuke asked while he reassured himself that nothing Naruto could say would deter him from his goal; he had no idea of just how wrong he was.

"What exactly do you plan to do with your life after you defeat Itachi?" Naruto asked; Sasuke opened his mouth to retort, but quickly made a quizzical face.

He hadn't thought about it at all, not in the slightest. Not once since the massacre of his clan did he consider what he would do after he killed Itachi. That was his motivation in life, his reason to get stronger, and yet he now that he thought about it more closely realized that it hadn't gotten much of anything. He didn't even have a Sharingan, the most prized jutsu of his clan, to show for his efforts. Naruto, on the other hand, who was a "dead last" who was supposed to be beneath him and who had no real desire for revenge, had probably become the most powerful ninja in the entire Leaf Village, and maybe even the in entire shinobi world from what Sasuke had witnessed. Naruto, who read Sasuke's thought to the letter, decided to clarify his point.

"My point exactly. You're so focused on revenge you don't stop to think about where you'll be when it's over. I'm not telling you to stop your search, but don't make it the center of your world, either. If you'll only end up living a lonely existence in the end… if your desire for revenge doesn't consume you first," said Naruto.

"What do you mean by 'consume'?" Sasuke asked; Naruto sighed at this.

"Do you remember about when I told you about those hollows that lived in Hueco Mundo?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded in response. There was no way that either he or the rest of Team 7 could forget about the creatures that Naruto was referring to since, shortly before the mission to the Land of Waves Naruto, without revealing how he did it, had one of those so-called Hollows appear before them. Though Naruto had the creature, which was a run-of-the-mill hollow, restrained the entire time and eventually "killed" it after he finished his little story the incident had been the one of the most frightening experiences that the rest of Team 7 had been through.

"To put it in a way you might understand revenge is like a hollow. You see, Sasuke, a hollow gains power by consuming other beings and, in their quest for more power, they attack anyone they deem a threat even if those "threats" were people who were the one closest to them. And they'll keep consuming and consuming more beings until there is no one left to consume or, as is always the case, someone stronger, be it a hollow or something else, ends up killing them," Naruto said; after he made sure that Sasuke was still listening to him before he finished his little analogy.

"It's the same thing with revenge. You think that it'll all end once you kill your 'prey' but it doesn't; what happens instead is that you then find out who that person might've been been close with. You will then probably decide to go after them only to then go after those who are associated with the people you've just killed; this cycle, which is almost impossible for the avenger to break out of, will just keep repeating itself until you're left with no one else to gain any venegance against or, more than likely, someone or something manages to stop you somewhere along the way. That's what revenge is and that is what the path you're taking in life right now will leave you with," Naruto said.

Naruto, having finished his explanation, then grabbed Sasuke's shoulder before he flashed stepped back to where he had left Sakura; when the two genin got there, however, they found Sakura lying completely motionless with her eyes wide and full of terror. Naruto and Sasuke carefully made their way to her.

"What's wrong with her?" Sasuke asked as waved his hand in her face which was ineffective since she didn't blink once.

"She's in a state of total shock. I bet you had something to do with it didn't you?" Naruto said as he turned to face a woman wearing a grean outfit with black pants and a Kusagakure headband.

"The poor thing was overpowered by my killing intent. But now that you two have arrived things might be a little bit more interesting," the woman said as she licked her lips at the challenge awaiting her.

"Go take care of Sakura. I'll take care of this freak myself, Sasuke," Naruto ordered; Sasuke was about protest this until Naruto forced him to comply by releasing his reiatsu. Naruto turned to face his opponent as soon as his teammates were a safe distance away.

"You sure are confident, aren't you?" the woman said while she was still smiling at Naruto.

"You're no ordinary shinobi. I can feel the evil chakra just pouring out of you. So why don't you drop the charade and reveal your true self," Naruto said as he could sense this person's chakra was immense compared to that of the opponent he has faced since becoming a shinobi.

"You're a clever boy; not many can see through my disguises," the "woman" said as she pulled off her skin to reveal a pale face with snake eyes.

"My name is Orochimaru," the assailant said in a sickly male voice.

"Orochimaru, one of the Three Legendary Sannin. It's gonna be a real honor to kill you," Naruto said; the Uzumaki revealed a small grin to the sannin while he unsheathed his zanpakuto.

"Kukuku… so sure of ourselves, are we? Very well then, but know that I am far more skilled than anyone you have faced before, Naruto Uzumaki," Orochimare said before he pulled Kusangi out of his throat.

"I sure hope so, traitor, since finding a good opponent to fight against has been impossible since I came back to Konoha," Naruto replied.

Naruto rushed Orochimaru, causing their swords to lock up as they tried to overpower each other. In a flash, they were moved to a large tree branch as multiple sword strikes were being made every second. Naruto and Orochimaru's arms were a blur of swift movements and sparks. Naruto, after a few minutes, then managed to outmaneuver Orochimaru and impale him in the stomach, only for to see that the Sannin had turned into mud. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he sensed a presence from behind and instinctively threw a head kick to the approaching Sannin. Orochimaru barely ducked under the head kick, and then proceeded to impale Naruto's head. The blonde moved his head out of the way of the blade and grabbed Orochimaru's arm which he then used to fling him through some trees. Naruto then flash stepped toward his foe only for Orochimaru to meet him with his fingertips glowing with purple flames.

"Five elements seal!" Orochimaru said as he rammed his fingers into Naruto's gut.

"There, now you won't be getting anymore help from the Kyuubi."

Naruto remained still on the tree branch as Orochimaru kept his fingers on Naruto's gut. Then, to Orochimaru's confusion, he heard slight chuckling coming from Naruto, which then turned into a full-blown laugh.

"What the hell is so funny?" Orochimaru asked as he was irritated that this little kid was laughing at him.

"Sorry to disappoint you, you snake, but the Kyubi isn't exactly sealed in me anymore, though he's kept close," Naruto said before he took a moment to enjoy the look of terror that appeared on the Snake Sannin's face; that terror only grew when he saw the seal dissipate before his very eyes.

"What!?" Orochimaru said as he did not understand how this "brat" had so much power without the Kyubi.

"I'm done playing with you, but since I've already revealed a little secret, I might as well show you what I mean. Say hi, Kyubi," Naruto said as he held up his blade, which turned red and sent out an energy shockwave that sent Orochimaru flying. (Rocker1600 Note: I am unsure if this was jmac615's intention, but I don't intend to have "Say hi, Kyubi" as the release command for Naruto's Zanpakuto)

By the time he hit a tree, Orochimaru was kneed in the gut and sent to the ground. Orochimaru recomposed himself in time to block Naruto's zanpakuto, but was getting severely over powered. Naruto proceeded to grab Kusangi with his bare hands and flung it out of Orochimaru's hand. Naruto proceeded to impale him in the chest; Orochimaru, however, turned into a log and disappeared.

"_This is more than I had expected from this kid. I need to do what I came here to do and leave; I'll deal with the jinchuriki later. Time to make the Uchiha come to me,_" Orochimaru said; he proceeded with caution so as to not be discovered.

(Elsewhere in the Forest)

Sasuke was staying under a tree, watching over his pink haired teammate, who had gone unconscious after she was snapped out of the shock. He was also thinking about what Naruto had said to him. He saw how strong Naruto was and it seemed that this strength, along with his drive, was due to his desire to protect his friends. He wondered if his quest for revenge was actually holding him back rather than helping him move forward.

Sasuke was still questioning the path he had taken in life he suddenly felt a strong pain in his head that seemingly came from out of nowhere. He put his right hand on his forehead as the pain grew with every second until he was enveloped in a dark void; after a few minutes he opened his eyes, which he had closed during the ordeal.

He found himself reliving the scene that had haunted him for five years: the massacre of his clan at the hands of brother Itachi; this time, however, Sasuke felt that something was wrong. As he saw his brother finish his speech, he noticed that the younger version of himself got up and, to his complete shock, awakened the Sharingan. The younger Sasuke then pursued Itachi.

"_I know this isn't what happened that night… so why does this feels so familiar, as if it had occurred,_" a shocked Sasuke thought to himself as his younger self was defeated by Itachi.

Current (12/13 yrs. old) Sasuke then watched in disbelief as his brother began crying while he was he was picking up his forehead protector, which little (7/8 yrs. old) Sasuke had knocked off. Itachi then incapacitated little Sasuke, but not before he using the Tsukuyomi on him; current Sasuke fell unconcious soon after. After a few seconds, Sasuke woke up to find himself back in the Forest of Death with a still unconscious Sakura in front of him.

As he continued watching over Sakura, he tried to make sense of what he had witnessed.

"_Why would Itachi want me to forget those last moments? Something is definitely wrong. Even if he really wants me to kill him, that doesn't explain why he would rid me of those memories,_" Sasuke thought to himself as he considered the possible meaning of his visions.

"_Does this mean my desire for revenge is misguided? Does this mean that Naruto was right? And does that there really was more to what happened that night?_" Sasuke thought to himself; his musings were cut short, however, when Orochimaru appeared in front of him. Sasuke stood up to face this potential threat.

"Finally, I will soon have my hands on the sharingan," Orochimaru said as Sasuke took a defensive stance.

"I may have not even awakened my Sharingan, but I won't let you take me until I have found a path to follow," Sasuke said even though he now unsure of the first part of that statement. Sasuke had decided, at the very least, to uncover the full truth of what had happened that fateful night before he would decide on the path he would walk. The fact that Sasuke was "unable" to activate the fabled dojutsu did little to deter Orochimaru.

"Pity, but allow me to give you a gift that will make you come to me in time," an ecstatic Orochimaru said before his neck stretched out and lunged at Sasuke.

Before he could even get to Sasuke, however, Orochimaru's neck was seized by a hand... belonging to one Naruto Uzumaki. Orochimaru tried to wiggle himself free of the blonde's grasp forcing Naruto to squeeze his neck even harder to make sure he couldn't get away. Finally, without saying a word, Naruto took out his zanpakuto and severed Orochimaru's head from his neck. The snake body dropped to the ground and didn't turn into a substitution signifying the quick end of the infamous shinobi.

"You all right?" Naruto asked as he sheathed his zanpakuto.

"Yeah and I think Sakura's coming to," Sasuke said as Sakura began to stir awake only to shoot up in a split-second.

"What happened? Where that woman from before?" Sakura asked looked around for her attacker.

"'She' was really Orochimaru, one of the Three Legendary Sannin of Konoha. I had read a while ago that he turned traitor, though I doubt he's going to do anything to harm the Village anytime soon," Naruto said as began searching Orochimaru's body.

"Wow, that's pretty crazy. What was he after?" asked Sakura, as she thought, understandly, that it was strange that such a power shinobi would waste time with a Chūnin Exam attacking genin.

"He was after me, and apparently thought he could get my sharingan even though I haven't developed yet," said Sasuke, as he looked over at Naruto, hoping to hide the changes occurring within himself.

Naruto, meanwhile, found four scrolls that he placed next to him before he continued his search; his teammates took a look at those scrolls and realized that none of those was the one that they needed to pass the exam.

"Damn, he doesn't have the scroll on him. Looks like were not home free yet," Naruto said; he thought that Orochimaru might have had the scroll they needed to pass since he disquised himself as a participant.

"We'll still have plenty of to find a team with the right scroll," Sasuke said, earning a nod and a smirk from the Uzumaki.

"You're right about that, Sasuke. But how about the three of you hiding in the bushes over there come out and save us the trouble?" Naruto asked; Sasuke and Sakura turned to see three Oto shinobi appear out of the bush behind them.

One was completely covered in bandages and looked like a mummy. He wore an over coat and spotted jeans, black sandals, and a weird gauntlet on both hands. The next guy had spiky hair, a scarf around his neck, yellow shirt, and same pants as his teammate as well as a face filled with rage. The third member of the group was a female that had long black hair, a scarf around her neck, green vest and same pants as her teammates.

"You killed our master and you think we'll just let you have our scroll?" Zaku asked; he was beyond angry over his master's death.

"You're more than welcome to join him if you want but we are leaving here with your scroll if it's the one we need," Naruto said as Sakura and Sasuke got prepared to back him up.

"Zaku, he's way too powerful. Let's just cut our loses and hand over our scroll," Dosu said before retrieving the scroll out of his pocket and laying it on the ground. Naruto smirked at seeing that it was the heaven scroll that they needed.

"Excellent. Oh, and one more thing; tell the rest of Orochimaru's spies to pack up and get out of here if they value their lives," Naruto said before the Oto trio left in a hurry.

"I think we should now be making our way to the tower before any other team gets wise to us," Sasuke said. Naruto, while he agreed with the Uchiha for once, had one last bit of business to take care of.

"First things first, Sasuke," Naruto said as he pointed towards Orochimaru's now lifeless body.

"We need to dispose of most of those remains," Naruto stated as he realized that this moment presented an opporunity he had been waiting for...

Next Time – Settling Scores

(Rocker1600 Note # 1: This is the last of jmac615's chapters; all other chapters from 12 onwards are of my design and mine alone.)

(Rocker1600 Note # 2: To prevent the large difference in the number of chapters between this story and my original story, The Two Heroes, I will update each story in an alternating cycle; to give you an idea of what I mean, my next update will be Chapter 4 of the Two Heroes, after which I will update KItsune of Las Noches with Chapter 12 before adding Chapter 5 of the Two Heroes, and so on. If you don't understand, simply so; I gladly give another explanation.)

(Rocker1600 Note # 3: As I've told the readers of the Two Heroes, the best way to increase your chances of receiving a quick update is to send a lot of reviews; so please send reviews. Having more Favs and Follows wouldn't hurt either.)


	13. 12 Settling Scores

**Chapter 12 – Settling Scores**

A/N# 1: This is the first of my own chapters; I hope you find them as good as the ones from jmac615. I also ask that you readers send more reviews, though not of the kind that I received from StrongGuy159; if you have any you find that you think I should improve on, please say so, but don't make threats, serious or not, like the one that the writer in question made.

To StrongGuy159: Your last comment was very rude and completely uncalled for; from now on if you say something like that again I'll delay the next chapter (for both of the stories I'm writing) for a month for each malicious comment that's made. And I am a man of my word; you've been warned.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and/or Bleach.

[Forest of Death, Konohagakure]

_Current Time….._

Team 7 was nearing the central tower in the Forest of Death, with both scrolls in hand. Naruto had taken a couple of minutes after obtaining the scrolls to destroy Orochimaru's remains, save for his head, which he was now carrying in a small sack he that he held in his hand. This crept out Sakura to no end and, after mustering enough courage, finally approached Naruto.

"Why are you carrying that thing with you?" She asked, hoping he wouldn't do anything drastic. Naruto just shook his head at her question.

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you; just know that it's something I have to do," Naruto said as he was focusing his thoughts on settling the score with the civilian council.

"_I can finally get those damned fools off my back_," he thought to himself; the civilian council had taken their contempt for him too far by attempting to take Haku, and especially Jango and Tiraran, from him. He was going to make them swallow their pride and acknowledge his worth through either respect or fear, and this was as good an opportunity as he'll get. There was another reason why he kept the grisly trophy, one that would reveal itself when they got to their destination.

A couple of minutes later they arrived at the tower and entered; they noticed the place was completely empty. The other teams were probably still duking it out within the forest; considering the fact that they had finished in under half an hour, however, this wasn't much of a surprise. Naruto and company were looking for a secluded area within the tower to open their scrolls when Naruto sensed the presence of another team; Naruto motioned for Sasuke and Sakura to stop as he tried to determine whether the other team was heading towards them. Sure enough the team was headed their way; he motioned for teammates to hide and to prepare to ambush the team if necessary. He immediately "flew" above a doorway in order get the drop on their pursuers. After a few tense moments three figures appeared.

It was Gaara and his siblings, who had apparently been tracking them; it wasn't their scrolls that they were after, however.

"We already have our scrolls, so who are we looking for?" Kankuro asked Gaara nervously as if he was trying not to provoke his younger brother; Gaara, however, either didn't hear his brother's question or he didn't care. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura understood why he was so afraid of Gaara, but Naruto already knew why; ever since his first encountered the Sand ninja, both he and his Tailed Beast-turned zanpakuto could sense the spirit of Shukaku within him. They could also sense the killing emanating from both of them; Naruto clenched his fists at the thought of the misery that the Sand Villagers put him through to make him turn out like this. Naruto was determined to show Gaara that he wasn't alone, though he decided to wait until they had a chance to fight each other to do so.

As the three siblings unwittingly walked past Naruto, Temari said something to Kankuro; she was unaware that Naruto and the rest of Team 7 were hiding in the shadows, listening to her every word.

"Did you notice that some of our allies from Otogakure simply ran out of the forest?" she asked him, to which Kankuro nodded.

"They looked like they just wanted to get out of here ASAP. Something must have happened; this wasn't part of the plan…." he said; before he could say anything else, however, they heard Naruto's voice.

"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and tear out your own throat! Bakudō # 9. Hōrin," he said; Temari and Kankuro, who were too busy trying to understand the "gibberish" he said, were suddenly ensnared by two orange hued tendrils, one for both Sand shinobi, with spiraling yellow patterns. The three Sand siblings then looked on in shock as Naruto gently descended from his hiding position, the index and middle fingers of both his hands controlling the bindings. Naruto, while keeping those fingers in their current position, brought both his hands together moving the tendrils binding Temari and Kankuro together. Naruto then pointed his right index finger at Gaara before he could respond.

"Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Bakudō # 61. Rikujōkōrō," he said. Naruto's finger began to generate a spark of yellow energy; the energy then summoned six beams of light that were both wide and thin; he then slammed these beams into Gaara's midsection, holding him in place. The Sand shinobi tried to break free from their bindings'; their efforts were to no avail, however, as the bindings were unyielding. Gaara couldn't even move his hands, negating his ability to attack with his sand.

"What the hell did you do to us!?" Temari roared at Naruto who smirked before he answered.

"I restrained you and your brothers with something called Kidō; they're advanced spells that only certain…. individuals can use," Naruto explained; Naruto's teammates, who had heard everything he said, emerged from their hiding spots as soon as Gaara was restrained. Both of them were shocked by this display; they were also somewhat relieved that he hadn't tried to use these things he called "Kidō" on them.

"How did you learn do those?" Sasuke asked. Naruto was soon having another flashback of his time in Las Noches; it was the only time that Aizen himself got directly involved in Naruto's training….

_**Flashback**_

[Unspecified location, Hueco Mundo]

_Two years before Naruto's return….._

Naruto was facing a 100 or so low-level hollows that had sensed his reiatsu and came out from their dwelling places underground. As Naruto prepared to engage this very unlucky horde, Aizen was standing several yards away, observing his "weapon" as the ninja prepared to use his newly refined Hadō spells. As the Espada were unable to learn Kidō, and with neither Gin nor Tosen having full mastery of this form of Shinigami combat, Aizen had to take it upon himself to train the blonde haired Jinchuriki in this field. Having already mastered the more passive Bakudō spells, Naruto was now going to fight the Hollows before him using only Hadō spells; he began his attack once the beasts got within 150 feet of him. He had the left hand closed into a fist save for his index finger.

"Hadō # 1. Shō," he said; his left index finger generated a small force that knocked the first Hollow to the ground. Naruto then used this Hadō repeatedly to temporarily disable several of the more agile Hollows before he continued his assault.

"Hadō #31. Shakkahō," he said, as an orb of crimson red energy formed in the open palm of his right hand. He discharged the orb which hit, and "killed", its target; like a choreographed dance, Naruto unleashed a combination of Shō and Shakkahō in perfect synchronization as the Hollows were dropped like flies. After the final Hollow was felled, Aizen appeared in front of Naruto.

"You do need to add more variety into attacks; other than that, though, you have full mastery of Kidō," Aizen said.

"Thank you, Aizen-sama," Naruto said as he bowed.

_**End Flashback**_

[Forest of Death, Konohagakure]

_Current Time…._

"My teachers taught me many different forms of combat; Kidō was among them. To be honest, though, I haven't been able to use my skills to their full effect, as I have yet to find an opponent strong enough for me to do so. Just be grateful that I didn't use my full power in those bindings," Naruto casually explained to his teammates and the Sand Siblings; though he had used the full incantation for both Bakudō spells, he had applied very little of his Reiryoku for those spells in this particular case. Sasuke and Sakura both shuddered at this; if Naruto was only using a fraction of his power and skills the entire time they had been together as a team, they didn't even want to know what would happen if went all out in a fight. He then went to his teammates and said something to them; after what appeared to be an argument between Naruto and Sasuke, the blonde haired ninja turned his attention to his "captives".

"What are you going to do to us?" Kankuro asked Naruto; though they wouldn't admit it, Temari and Kankuro had found the one person that scared them even more than Gaara. Naruto's face soon had a serious look on it.

"I just want to talk and considering what I'm going to you about, you would probably attack me if I didn't restrain you three," he said; after asking his teammates to pay close attention to their conversation, Naruto refocused his attention to the Sand shinobi.

"I'll start by asking you this; how long has your village been plotting with Orochimaru to attack Konoha?" he asked. After a few moments of silence, Kankuro and Temari eyes widened in shock after Naruto's question finally registered in their minds; Gaara remained unfazed at this, however, as he didn't care as much about the planned attack.

"Good Kami, how do you-?" Temari asked before Naruto opened the sack he was carrying and revealed its contents; her shock, along with Kankuro's, turned to pure horror once they saw the Snake Sannin's head. Sasuke decided to enter the conversation at this point.

"Your ally was very careless; he had all the information about the attack on his person," he said, revealing a set of four scrolls he was now carrying in his kunai pouch. At this point Naruto, who realized that questioning these three siblings wouldn't get him any more information than he already had, decided to explain what he was going to do now as he put his "trophy" back in the sack.

"This is what is going to happen; once my team and I finish our business here, I'm going to release these bonds. When I do this you three are going to go to your commander explain to him what I have shown you here; and you to deliver this message exactly as I told you, word for word," he said, momentarily pausing to make sure that they understood what he was saying.

"By the time you've received this message the higher-ups in Konoha will have already been informed of your village's actions and will have made full preparations before you are even prepared to mount your invasion, so you might as well call it off. Rest assured, however, if any harm were to come to Konoha by your actions I, Naruto Uzumaki, will personally make sure that the shinobi of Sunagakure will pay the price; and I can assure you that I never go back on my word. You have been warned," he said with a cold emotionless tone to drive the point home; it apparently worked as three Sand shinobi didn't make any objections to his demands.

"I believe our business is done; I still look forward to fighting you in the finals, Gaara," Naruto said as he and the rest of Team 7 left the room; this show of mercy on Naruto's part was what Sasuke had just argued against, though Naruto, in the end, had his way. After Team 7 had finished with the second part of the exams Naruto, before flash stepping out of the tower, honored his end of the agreement and released both of the Bakudō spells…from a distance.

[Kikyō Castle, Konohagakure]

_Two hours later…._

Team 7 had passed the second phase of the Chunin Exams an hour and a half earlier, having obtained and opened the scrolls in a record-breaking, according to their messenger Iruka (A/N: for those who don't understand what I'm talking about, read chapter 64 of Naruto), 54 minutes; the celebrations would have to wait, however, as the issue with Orochimaru and Sunagakure had to be dealt with. With more than four days until part two of the exams ended, Naruto had his teammates go to Kakashi and explain to him what had happened.

Naruto, who was now carrying both Orochimaru's head and scrolls, then went to see Sandaime. After entering finding him in his office, Naruto asked the old man to hold an emergency meeting with both councils, which the old Hokage did since he could tell from Naruto's demeanor that something serious was going on. Naruto now stood before Sandaime and both councils. The members of the shinobi council was also interested in listening to what Naruto wanted to address that would compel him to request such a meeting; the civilian council, on the other hand, were extremely irritated by Naruto's "arrogance", as they were still fuming from their last meeting with the young ninja.

"You better have a good reason to have called a meeting like this, you little gaki," one of the civilian councilman warned; it was the same person that Naruto had kicked more than a week ago. Naruto's expression remained dead serious despite similar displays of hostility by the civilian council members.

"I am trying to save the village from destruction and this is my thanks?" Naruto said in an almost mocking tone; the members of both councils were extremely confused at this. They were even more confused when Naruto opened a small sack he was carrying and reached inside.

"What do you mean by trying to save the- OH, SWEET KAMI!" another civilian councilman yelled in terror as he, the other civilians, the shinobi from the other council, and even the Hokage bore witness to Orochimaru's decapitated head. Naruto decided to explain what had happened.

"I found this traitor in the Forest of Death when my team and I were partaking in the second phase of the Chunin Exams. And before you ask, he was apparently after your precious Uchiha and his undeveloped Sharingan; he was also plotting, along with Sunagakure, to attack Konoha," he said before placing the head in the center of the table in front of him so that everyone could get a good look at the grisly remains. Homura, while convinced of Orochimaru's demise, was still skeptical of Naruto's claims regarding the Sand.

"Do you have any proof that Suna, one of our staunchest allies, would actually plot alongside someone as vile Orochimaru to do something like that?" he asked, to which Naruto responded by opening the scrolls that were also inside the sack. When Naruto first found the scroll he noticed that Orochimaru had placed very complex and very powerful seals on them; as Naruto's mind was now as sharp as his zanpakuto, however, it didn't take him more than a few minutes to counter both the seals and the insidious "surprises" that the Sannin had added as secondary measures.

"I found these scrolls among the remains of Orochimaru's body before I destroyed them; it contains all the information regarding his plans, and it clearly states that the Sand Village are his collaborators," Naruto said as he placed the four scrolls on the same table as the head. He then decided to leave information to them; as much as he distrusted the civilian council he knew the shinobi council would be able to act on this information. Naruto then turned his attention to Sandaime.

"I'm sorry I had to do this to him, old man, but I had no other choice," he said; he had read about Sandaime's history with the missing-nin and knew about his attachment to the Sannin. Hiruzen simply looked back at Naruto.

"You have no reason to apologize Naruto; you performed a great service for the village and I'm most grateful for that," he said to Naruto, who nodded in reply.

"Anyways, that's what I came here to discuss, so I'm done here," Naruto said as he flash stepped his way out of the fortress. After Naruto's departure the councils began to discuss preparations for the attack in case it would still occur; the councils also opted not to inform the villagers of the threat just yet, as the possibility of the invasion occurring was uncertain now that the mastermind had been disposed of. The members of the shinobi council also decided, with Sarutobi's full approval, to acknowledge Naruto's efforts in defeating Orochimaru; despite the desire of the civilian council to have Sasuke receive, unbeknownst to him and undeservedly, all the credit, they complied with the Hokage and the shinobi council out of their newly-found fear of Naruto. As Naruto had planned the civilian council would, from that time onward, refuse to confront him as they did not want to incur the wrath of a guy who could kill a Sannin with no effort on that person's part.

_Three Days Later….._

News of Naruto's victory over Orochimaru had spread like wildfire across the shinobi world; Naruto's name, not surprisingly, became a household word almost immediately. Though this news did not completely changed the villagers' views on him, Naruto noticed the that it did have an immediate effect; all the stares he received no longer contained a sense of hatred so much as they were filled with an "I don't know what to think of him now"-type of expression. Surprisingly, Naruto acted as though nothing had changed as he prepared for the third phase of the Chunin Exams. Naruto's newfound fame, of course, also came with the unwanted eye of a certain group of shinobi…

Next Time – Preliminaries


	14. 13 Preliminaries

**Chapter 13 – Preliminaries**

A/N # 1: I apologize for the delay, but I needed the results from a poll I had posted on my profile page before I continued (I always like to have the main idea for the next two chapters of my stories before I write a new chapter).

A/N # 2: I have posted a new poll on my profile; since the subject of the poll is of big importance I need your votes. The question on the poll is "Should Kitsune of Las Noches end in Part 1 of Naruto or should I continue the story into Part 2 -Shippuden?" Please vote; I really need your opinions on this as I really cannot decide on this one myself.

To StrongGuy159: I'll forgive you this time; I am, however, thoroughly serious on what I will do if it happens one more time, so don't do it again. I understand that you wanted an update soon; I nearly lost a very close relative, however, when someone recently tried to make good on a similar threat he had given to my family member online, so I'm taking those types of comments very seriously now. This does not mean I can't accept criticisms but I won't tolerate comments of a threatening nature such as the one you had posted.

Preceding note aside, please still keep sending reviews, favs, and follows.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and/or Bleach

[Konoha Hot Springs, Konohagakure]

_Current Time…._

Naruto had been training in preparation for the Chunin Exams Finals, on and off, for three days; he would often train either by himself or with his fracciones. As he bathed within the hot spring, however, he was thinking about the person had been training with earlier today: Sasuke Uchiha.

He was surprised when his teammate had asked him to help him with his training; though Naruto knew what he had told Sasuke in the Forest of Death had reached him, he had not expected that the Uchiha would have begun to change so soon. When Sasuke told him about what he had seen in his recollection of his clan's massacre back in the forest, however, Naruto agreed to help him reawaken his Sharingan but Naruto told Sasuke that he should ask Kakashi with his training after he had done so since Naruto could not teach him how to use the dojutsu for obvious reasons. After three hours of sparring, and of Naruto having to give his best impression of a villain to provoke his teammate, Sasuke had finally reawakened his dojutsu; before Sasuke left to find Kakashi, however, he asked Naruto a shocking question….

"_This may sound stupid but….. do you know what happened that day? You knew about the massacre before you returned to Konoha even though you weren't here when it happened…_" Sasuke had asked him.

After a few moments of awkward silence Naruto admitted to Sasuke that he did; this was because Aizen was somehow able to record detailed knowledge of "significant" events and people that had occurred in the Shinobi World, with the Kyubi's Attack on Konoha being one of the few events that had certain gaps in information. Though he normally would forbid access to this knowledge, keeping it in his secret archives in Las Noches, Aizen had allowed Naruto to read his records on the Shinobi World, primarily because Aizen thought that, for some reason, it would help him in his conquest of that world.

When Sasuke tried to press Naruto for the truth of that day Naruto simply said that he would tell him when the time was right; though this angered Sasuke, he was forced to comply when Naruto released some of his spiritual pressure. Though this frustrated Sasuke he was, at the very least, relieved as that meant that he might be able to find his path soon.

After replaying what had happened that day in his mind, Naruto got out of the hot spring he was in for two and a half hours. As Naruto headed towards the exit he noticed a man, who was standing on top of a large toad, about to peek into the women's area of the spring, to which Naruto smirked; even though he hadn't met the man Naruto, thanks to the records in both the Namikaze Estate and Las Noches, already knew who it was. The blonde-haired ninja used his flash-step to appear by the man's side.

"You know if the women inside spot you you're a dead man, right…Jiraiya-san?" Naruto asked as Jiraiya, caught completely off-guard by Naruto, fell off the toad and landed on his face; after a few seconds, the self-proclaimed "super-pervert" finally got up, acting as though nothing had happened.

"Well, if that's the case, I'll just have to avoid getting caught, Naruto," the toad Sannin said, answering the young ninja's question. Naruto did a facepalm in response to the Toad Sage's comment before he said anything.

"I was afraid that this would happen; my own godfather is truly the pervert everyone says he is," Naruto chided, having learned of his relation to the Toad Sage thanks to some of the documents he found at his Estate. Upon noticing that the Sannin now had a sorrowful expression, however, Naruto decided to console him.

"I know what you're thinking, Jiraiya-san, and you don't have to be down on yourself for that; I know you've been tracking down Orochimaru and the Akatsuki all this time. I don't hold the fact that you weren't there for me against you, so don't have to feel guilty about it," Naruto said to which Jiraiya smirked.

"Well at least you managed to care of Orochimaru; I won't have to worry about him anymore. We both still have something else to keep an eye out for, however…" Jiraiya said, earning a nod from Naruto. While he did not know how Naruto had learned of the Akatsuki, Jiraiya was just relieved that he knew; it made his job a lot easier.

"I'm pretty sure the Akatsuki will soon make their move against me; rest assured, however, because those missing-nins will only be greeted with the ends when they do come," Naruto proclaimed, to which Jiraiya, surprisingly, did not question him. If these had been normal circumstances the Toad Sage would've been completely concerned for Naruto's safety; these were not normal circumstances, however, as Jiraiya realized that Naruto was already at a level several times greater than a Kage. I wouldn't hurt, however, to stay close by for the time being.

Pushing those thoughts aside, the sannin and his godson did a quick catching up before Naruto decided to continue their conversation at another time. Jiraiya then accepted Naruto's offer to stay with him at the Estate; Naruto was about to leave before Jiraiya decided to ask one more question.

"I have ask, Naruto… has the Kyubi….?" he began until Naruto interrupted him.

"You don't have to worry about him; it took me a while to earn the Kyubi's trust, but I did earn it. He stopped trying to break the seal at least three years ago," Naruto said, to which Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief. With that Naruto finally left the hot springs as he prepared for the next day….

[Chunin Exams Preliminary Arena, Konohagakure]

_The Next Day…._

Naruto and the rest of his team had arrived at the assigned meeting area for the third phase of the Chunin Exams; they were surprised by the number of people who were apparently still taking part in the exams despite the eliminations and the withdrawal of both the Otogakure shinobi and Kabuto's Genin Team. Sasuke and Sakura were further surprised by the presence of the Sand Siblings considering what happened four days prior; after a few tense days, the leaders of Sunagakure were able to reestablish relations with Konoha after a team of Sand shinobi found the murdered Kazekage, which was another piece of Orochimaru's handiwork based on the evidence at the murder scene. This allowed the three Sand genin to continue participating in the exam.

As Team 7 stood alongside the other contestants, the Third Hokage, with Kakashi and the squad leaders of the other participants by his side, declared that because there were still too many contestants, 18 in total, to start the Chunin Exams Finals; a series of preliminary matches, therefore, would be held to thin out their numbers. After everyone went up to the arena's viewing area, a screen up in the wall was turned on with the images of the contestants appearing; after a few seconds only the images of Sasuke and Choji were still on the screen, indicating that this would be the first match.

Sasuke beat Choji through a combination of his Sharingan and taijutsu. Shino fought in, and won, the next match in whom he fought a shinobi from Amegakure. The next match saw the defeat of another Ame shinobi at the hands of Kankuro and his puppet Crow. The next match pitted Sakura against Ino; the two kunoichi ended up fighting to a draw, knocking each other unconscious in the process, after duking it out for more than 15 minutes; this forced Hayate Gekkō, the exam proctor for the preliminaries, to disqualify both Sakura and Ino. Sakura woke shortly after the fight up and was greeted by Ino; they became friends again despite their continued rivalry over Sasuke. Sakura then heard someone slowly clapping; she looked up and was suprised to see that it was Naruto.

"And so the flower finally begins to blossom; took you long enough," Naruto said to which Sakura simply smirked.

"I'm tired of needing you and Sasuke to save me all time; after what happened in the Forest of Death I vowed to become stronger so that maybe one day maybe I'll be the one doing the saving," she replied. Naruto simply encouraged her to keep improving before he turned his attention back to the fights.

The next fight was between Temari and Tenten; it was a one-sided battle as Temari wind attacks easily repelled all of Tenten's ninja tools. After defeating Tenten, Temari tried to throw the now-unconcious kunoichi at her own weapons, though Tenten's teamate Rock Lee managed to catch her before she fell. Lee and Temari almost got into a fight of their own until Naruto intervened; Naruto, having gotten to know Lee before the preliminaries, convinced him that he could always avenge his teammate in the Finals. Naruto then turned his attention to Temari.

"What you just did was completely uncalled for; if I see, or even hear of, any more displays like that on your part and I'll make sure that you'll never wield that fan again," Naruto said coldly; Temari, with her previous encounter with the shinobi forever burned into her memory, simply nodded and went back to the viewing area without saying a word. Naruto and Lee did the same after Tenten was carried away on a stretcher and awaited their respective matches.

After Shikamaru won the next match against the last of the three Ame shinobi, the selection screen began its selection for the next; to the surprise of everyone in the arena, the next match would be between Naruto and Kiba. As the news of Naruto's victory over Orochimaru was already known to everyone in the shinobi world, the participants expected Kiba to immediately forfeit and were shocked when the Inuzuka clansman looked at Naruto as he was excited to face the blonde-haired ninja. Kiba and Akamaru, Kiba's canine companion, rushed down to the fight area and were surprised to see that Naruto was already waiting for them.

"I suggest that you forfeit right now, Kiba; I really don't want hurt an old friend," Naruto stated bluntly; he was disappointed when Kiba simply smirked in response.

"No way I'm just going walk away from this fight, Naruto; if I can beat you I might end up as the Hokage," Kiba declared; after a few moments of silence, Naruto simply sighed.

"While I respect you're resolve, I also dream of becoming Hokage one day, Kiba, so if you are not willing to forfeit this match then I'll just have to end this fight quickly," Naruto said as he stuck his zanpakuto in the ground. Kiba simply made his smirk even wider.

"I hope ready to lose, Naruto," Kiba boasted as he and Akamaru prepared for battle.

"Ready? Begin!" Hayate said as everyone else in the arena watched the battle with great interest. Though the spectators figured that Kiba had lost this fight the moment Naruto became his opponent they wanted to see what the blonde-haired was capable of if he was able to defeat a Sannin without getting a scratch; Gaara, Neji, and Lee were among those who were studying Naruto every move. The other members of Team 7 were also watching this match closely to see if Naruto would use any abilities that they had not yet seen.

Kiba, meanwhile, gave Akamaru a pill while a he ingested a pill of the same type, which Naruto recognized, based on the sudden and profound increase in Chakra from both Kiba and his companion, as a military rations pill. Kiba then used the a technique he called the Man Beast Clone to transform Akamaru into an exact copy of himself.

"Yahoo! Let's do this!" both likenesses of Kiba yelled; while these turn of events caught the specatators by surprise to varying degrees Naruto did not appear react in any visible manner. Naruto had not even remove his hands from his pockets, where they had been since he placed his zanpakuto in the ground; the lack of a reaction only irriatated both Kiba and his lookalike in attacking Naruto.

"Man-Beast Ultimate Taijutsu: Fang Over Fang!" both Kibas roared as they charged towards where Naruto was standing while spinning their bodies at an incredible speed; this act of spinning, however, meant that neither of the two Kibas noticed that Naruto had suspiciously not even moved a muscle. The Kibas quickly fell upon Naruto before anyone could say anything and delivered a barrage of powerful beast-like strikes; after a few moments the two tag team members emerged from their winning blow as Naruto fell to the ground with multiple injuries. As everyone looked on in shock and disappointment both Kibas walked up to Naruto; one of the two fighters, the real Kiba, began taunting Naruto.

"I can't believe that Orochimaru guy lost to a guy like you when you can't even beat me; if it makes you feel better, though, I'll become Hokage in your place," he said with a smirk on his face; before he could say anything else, however, someone standing behind both Kiba interrupted his gloating.

"You even cockier and dumber than I thought, Kiba," the person said with an all too familiar voice that made Kiba's heart stop; the Inuzuka clansman looked behind him and was horrified to see Naruto standing right behind him... completely unscathed. Kiba looked back at the injured "Naruto" and became even more terrified he saw that the Naruto he hit had vanished into thin air.

"_That's impossible; I know I hit him with my attack and he didn't use a clone jutsu,_" Kiba thought to himself; Naruto traced Kiba's thought to the letter.

"I didn't use a clone jutsu; what you attacked was an afterimage that I can create when I'm moving at twenty percent of my top speed and above. Now then, let me end this fight," Naruto said, terrifying his opponents even further as he held his right hand in front of Kiba and Akamaru; Naruto's index and middle fingers were pointed upwards while the other finger were closed together.

"Bakudō # 1. Sai," Naruto said as his moved his outstretched hand in an outward sweeping motion. Both Kiba and Akamaru, who was still in his Beast Clone form, suddenly felt their arms lock behind their back while their legs had also been locked in place, the latter of which caused both them to fall to the ground; despite using every ounce of strength that they had, Kiba nor Akamaru were to move a muscles in any of their limbs.

"It's useless to struggle against that technique; I've paralyzed all of your limbs and I'm the only one who can undo your bindings. The next time you choose to fight me you should learn how to take me seriously," Naruto said.

With both Kiba and Akamaru unable to fight any further, Hayate declared Naruto the victor, ending the fight; after Naruto released both Kiba and Akamaru, the dog reverted back to his canine form while Kiba declared that Naruto was now his rival. Naruto simply encouraged him to get stronger if he wished to face him again before both shinobi went back to the viewing area while everyone just looked as if he were a ghost. After winning his fight, Naruto proceded to watch the next fight, which was between Hinata and Neji, who are apparently cousins.

Neji attempted to assault Hinata psychologically, saying that she would always be a failure and therefore had no chance of beating him, only to stop when Hinata, encouraged by Naruto's prescence, refused to back down. When Naruto had vanished seven years earlier Hinata, after a few weeks of digging around, became one of the few people to find out what that had went off to train somewhere and that he would return someday though the Third Hokage, having learned of this, convinced her to not tell anyone else about this revelation. Having gained feelings for Naruto before he left and inspired by the lenghts he would go better himself, Hinata vowed to do the same; by the time Naruto had returned to Konoha, Hinata had gained much more confidence in herself as well as a greater willingness to take decisive action. This new sense of confidence, along with the fact that she had also demonstrated a great deal of improvement in her abilities as a kunoichi, was what convinced Hiashi, her father the head of the Hyuga Clan, to let his elder daughter keep her position as the heiress to the clan; these changes were the reason why Hiashi was amicable towards Naruto, having learned of his influence, and in fact was one of the more vocal of the Jinchuriki's supporters within the shinobi council.

Despite Hinata's growth, however, Neji still proved to be the stronger of the two, easily winning the match; Hinata refused to give up, however, and when Neji began berating her yet again, lecturing on how she could never change her destiny, Hinata simply said that if he, for all his talk about destiny, had refused to accept what he said was his destiny. Neji was so enraged by Hinata's comment he charged at his cousin, intending to kill her, despite the fact that he had already been declared the winner; he was stopped, however, when Naruto, who had intervened, stood in Neji path, the tip of his zanpakuto milimeters from the Hyuga's throat. After Hinata was carried away by a couple of medics, Naruto sheathed his zanpakuto and walked towards Neji.

"Before these exams are over, I'm going to shove your belief in destiny down your own throat, Hyuga," Naruto coldly whispered into Neji's before walking away, leaving Neji somewhere between shocked and scared for his own life.

As Naruto was watching the ninth, and last, match of the preliminary rounds, which pitted Lee against Gaara, he entered his spiritual state, which looked like a giant boiler the had been inundated; the Kyubi, who had been watching everything unfold as closely as his jinchuriki, had an idea of why Naruto had come to see him.

"_I guessing that you've noticed what Shukaku is doing to that guy,_" the Kyubi said, to which Naruto nodded in reply.

"_Do you there's any chance that I can help Gaara, Kurama?_" he asked; Naruto noticed that a giant vein poke out of Kurama's forehead.

"_You're the one who's knows about those sort of things better__, Naruto, so you have to be the one who makes that call. As for my name, didn't we agree that you wouldn't call by it until you finally released me?_" Kurama asked with a great deal of irritation in his voice (A/N: To prevent confusion among you readers, I mean that Naruto releases Kurama as a zanpakuto and not in the sense that Kurama breaks free from Naruto). During his training at Las Noches Naruto had learned Kurama's name; though it was originally out of necessity, as Naruto needed to know the Tailed Beast-turned-zanpakuto's true name in order to use its power, he eventually managed to befriend the cynical kitsune which allowed Naruto to use his name in normal conversation.

"_I only agreed to not call by your name until that time in front of other people,_" Naruto said; Naruto then looked around before he asked Kurama, "_Do you see anyone else here?_" Kurama smirked.

"_Alright, Naruto, you got me,_" Kurama said before he went to sleep; having gotten Kurama's answer to his question Naruto left his spiritual state.

Naruto returned, so to speak, from his conversation with Kurama just as Lee unleashed the fifth chakra gate; despite the power the technique unleashed, Gaara's ability to manipulate sand allowed him to lessen the damage he sustained while Lee's body took a great deal from using the chakra gates. Even though Gaara was declared the winner he tried to take advantage of Lee's weakened state by trying to crush Lee's limbs with his sand; at this point, however, Naruto once again intervened though this time he had to release his reiatsu in order to pin down Gaara and his sand. The moment Lee was carried to a safe location by medics Naruto released his grip on Gaara; needless to say, the Sand Jinchuriki was seething though he was now too weak to use his sand for anything but defense.

"Why are you just walking away like that?" Gaara hissed as he stood back up; Naruto only sighed at this.

"When I fight you in the Finals, I'll let my actions answer that question for you," Naruto replied as he back went to the viewing area leaving Gaara speechless as he stood.

Now that the preliminary rounds have ended, the Third Hokage called for the advancing genin to assemble before him; after congratulating the remaining participants on their victories, Hiruzen annocunced that they would have a month to prepare before the Finals began. After explaining the reasons behind the break Hiruzen revealing that whether they become chunin or not, regardless of the outcomes of their future matches, depends on their performance which would be evaluated by a council of judges, which included Daimyos, high-ranking shinobi from the participants home villages, and by Hiruzen himself. The finalists then received a number from a piece of paper they each grabbed from a bag; Hiruzen revealed that the final part of the exam was an eight-man tournament to be held before an audience of spectators that included the judges. After each genin declared what number they received the proctor for the Finals, a man named Genma Shiranui, showed them a bracket that showed the genin their opponent for their next fight.

* * *

1 Naruto Uzumaki

2 Neji Hyuga

* * *

3 Gaara

4 Shikamaru Nara

* * *

5 Temari

6 Sasuke Uchiha

* * *

7 Kankuro

8 Shino Aburame

* * *

After seeing their matchups the genin were dismissed by Sarutobi so that they could have their month of preparations. Naruto soon began training in preparation for his fight with the Hyuga prodigy...

Next Time - Round 1: Naruto vs. Neji

A/N # 3: The eight finalists are the same as in the actual story; I did, however, change up the matchups except Naruto vs. Neji and Kankuro vs. Shino. The reason is... to be revealed in the next few chapters.


	15. 14 Round 1: Naruto vs Neji

**Chapter 14 – Round 1: Naruto vs. Neji**

A/N: Since many of you have asked me to fix the grammatical errors from jmac615's chapters I decided to grant those requests; these changes will not occur all at once as it takes time to fix those chapters and I have to write the newer chapters for both of my stories. These fixes are for grammar only; no plot changes, no exceptions.

Please keep sending favs, follows (if you haven't either of the two already), and reviewing.

Disclaimer: Still applies.

Recap:

After seeing their matchups the genin were dismissed by Sarutobi so that they could have their month of preparations. Naruto soon began training in preparation for his fight with the Hyuga prodigy...

[Chunin Exams Stadium, Konohagakure]

_One Month Later..._

The start of the Chunin Exam Finals was 15 minutes away and the stadium which the matches were to be held was packed with spectators which included Konoha shinobi and villagers as well as dignitaries from other nations. Sakura and Ino, who had found an empty section of seats in one of the middle rows, were talking about some of the finalists when a female's voice interrupted their conversation.

"Mind if we take those two seats next to you, Sakura-chan?" the voice asked; both genin turned their heads to the sound of the voice and saw Tiraran and Jango standing in the steps next to their seats.

"Not at all, Tiraran-san. I'm rather surprised that you and Jango-san would wait until now to arrive, though, since Naruto-kun's fight is the first one to take place," Sakura pointed out; Sakura, as well as most of the Rookie Nine (A/N: That's the name group of shinobi that is made of Teams 7, 8, and 10), had gotten to know Naruto's fracciones rather well in the month before the finals with Sakura and Tiraran becoming good friends despite the fact that the Arrancar found Sakura's infatuation with Sasuke to be annoying.

"Tiraran didn't want to get out of bed today; I had to remind her of that fact just to wake her up," Jango explained as he and Tiraran sat down.

While Sakura explained to the Arrancars the matchups for the Finals Naruto, along with Sasuke and Kakashi, had arrived five minutes before the Finals were to begin; after talking with the two genin for a few moments Kakashi went to the stands while they, along with the other finalists, stood before the Sandaime and Genma.

After congatulating the Finalists for their successes, and giving a little speech about what these Finals mean to the shinobi, the proctor asked the contestants if any of them wanted to forfeit right then as now would be a good time to do so. Shikamaru immediately took him up on the offer; this was partly due to his laziness and, more importantly, because he already knew that he would've been unable to defeat his opponent. That opponent, Gaara, now had a spot in the semifinals and would fight either Naruto or Neji, depending on who won that fight.

After no one else forfeited Genma asked for all the remaining finalists, minus Naruto and Neji, to head for the viewing area; as the two finalists face each other the sounds of excitement from the stands was defeaning.

"Is that blonde-haired one the kid who killed Orochimaru?" one spectator asked rhetorically.

"This is going to be an interesting fight," another one said.

"A Hyuga prodigy and a Sannin-killer; I can't wait to see what happens," yet another spectator said.

While most of the spectators were getting restless Izumo and Kotetsu, who had taken a day off from their guarding duties, were watching the two genin very closely.

"So who do you think might have this fight?" Izumo asked his best friend.

"Neji is a Hyuga prodigy who has yet to be beaten in battle, while Naruto defeated a member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist and a Sannin without getting a scratch on him in either battle; if a had to put my money on it, I would have to give to Naruto. Heck, depending on how the fight unfolds he might become a chunin regardless of the outcome," Kotetsu replied.

Neither of them realized that Kiba, who was sitting next to Hinata in the stands, sighed at the last part of Kotetsu's answer.

"_They're talking as though Neji can actually beat Naruto. You had better beat this Hyuga kid, Naruto,_" Kiba thought to himself.

Naruto, meanwhile, had already unsheated his zanpakuto as Neji smirked at him; Neji had a small conversation about his belief in destiny and his past with Naruto and had angered the normally unfazable ninja when he said that Naruto did not now what it was like to be burdened with a symbol that he couldn't rid himself of.

"Do you actually consider as an equal to you, Uzumaki?" Neji asked, having figured out the meaning behind Naruto's strange habit of sticking his sword in the ground; Naruto simply looked at him with his usual calm expression.

"While you're not worth using my sword I told you that I show you that your belief in destiny is nothing but a load of bull," Naruto replied.

"And just how do you plan to do that?" Neji asked. Naruto answered without any change in his expression.

"You place a great deal of confidence in the abilities of your clan which you inherited; I cannot think of a better way, therefore, to enlighten you than by showing you the gap in power between the abilities you've had since your birth and the abilities that took me seven long years of intense training to hone," Naruto explained. Sakura, who heard their conversation, was a little confused.

"What is Naruto-kun talking about?" Sakura asked to herself... out loud. Tiraran and Jango paled when they saw Naruto extend his right arm while he had the blade of his zanpakuto pointing at the ground.

"Uh-oh," Jango said, scaring Sakura and Ino.

"Why are you saying uh-oh?" Ino asked him.

"What did this Hyuga guy do to provoke Naruto-sama?" Tiraran asked in response. After a few moments of awkward silence Sakura told the fracciones about Naruto's confrontation with Neji a month prior; both of the fracciones breathed a sigh of relief at this.

"That's good; Naruto-sama is probably not going to go that far over something like that," Tiraran said, confusing the two kunoichi even further.

"Just watch the fight and you'll understand," Jango said as Genma told the two finalists to begin their match.

Neji immediately got into his fighting stance.

"Byakugan," Neji yelled as the veins in his pupils and around his temples began to bulge. Neji, confident that he would neutralize Naruto's chakra before he could do anything, looked up at Naruto to locate his chakra points. What Neji saw, however, made his heart stop cold and made his eyes widen in terror.

"_I can't sense any chakra flowing thorugh his system. What is going on?_" Neji thought to himself as Naruto now smirked, knowing what was the cause of the change in Neji's expression.

"What's the matter, Hyuga? Can't sense my power with those eyes of yours?" Naruto asked mockingly; the blonde continued before Neji could say anything.

"Do you want to know why you can't sense any chakra within me? The reason is real simple; I _don't_ have any chakra. It was all converted into another type energy known as reiryoku; whenever you feel my reiryoku emanating from me it means that I've released some of it, at which point it is known as reiatsu. This energy is much lighter and more potent than chakra and it is channeled through a different circulatory system; that is why you can't see anything flowing within me which means that your precious Gentle Fist techniques are useless against me," Naruto explained, causing Neji's eyes to widen even further; everyone in the stands, including Hiruzen and Team Guy but minus Naruto's fracciones, were equally surprised by this.

Neji, in his shock, charged at Naruto and threw a right hook, which Naruto easily sidestepped; Naruto immediately threw a reverse roundhouse kick at Neji, who could do nothing but place his hands up to block the attack. Though Naruto only applied one percent of his physical strength in that kick it was enough to send Neji flying across half the length of the stadium.

As the Hyuga tried to recover his footing he saw that Naruto was still holding his sword in the same position since the fight began.

"And now, Hyuga, behold the power that I'm about to release; the part of my power that is manifested within this blade. I will only use a part of it against you, but don't worry; this will end before you even know what is happening," Naruto said coldly. Everyone watching shuddered at those words, including Hiruzen.

"I hope your godson was telling the truth about having tamed the Kyubi, Jiraiya," he said to his former student, who was standing next to him.

"Don't worry about it; I'm pretty sure it won't be too bad," Jiraiya said in response; Naruto had explained the nature of the changes in the seal that kept Kurama within him and how it let him wield Kurama in the form of a blade to both men a few days prior, so they both knew was going to do.

As everyone, including Neji, looked at Naruto the blonde ninja took a deep breath.

"Devastate, Kurama: Zensō Katachi (A/N: Roughly translates to "Prelude Form"; it's Naruto's Initial Jinchuriki Form)," Naruto said; the sword in Naruto's hand suddenly disintegrated except for the red wrappings around the hilt, which turned into some sort of red energy that soon enveloped the ninja, which made his whisker marks thicker and his blue irises blood red in color while his pupils becoming slit-shaped. His canine teeth grew longer while his nails did the same, turning them into claws; despite the more feral appearance, however, Naruto's demeanor did not change as well, thereby proving that Naruto could indeed use Kurama's chakra-turned-reiatsu without any risk to himself.

The nature of Naruto's zanpakuto meant that Naruto had two different types of releases. The first type allows him to summon a miniature version of Kurama, while the second type allows him to use Kurama's reiatsu to varying levels; these levels ranged from the Zensō, which was the weakest level, to using the full power of Kurama, in which case he would meld his reiryoku with that of the Tailed Beast, which would envelop him a shroud that looked like a modified form of the Tailed Beast. Regardless of what release he used, however, the increase in abilities was undeniable, as this display showed.

"Wh-what is this power? Is this Naruto's full po-?" Sakura asked before Jango answered.

"No it's not Sakura-san. As powerful as you may think this form is, Naruto is still not using even ten percent of its power; his speed alone in that state would only be a faction of what he's capable of if he used the full power of that form," Jango said, which shocked the young kunoichi; she, at that moment onward, secretly hoped that Naruto would never be forced to use his full power as the situation necessary to force Naruto to do so would probably be darker than she could ever imagine.

That was the least of Neji's problems, as he was now rendered immobile by the massive amount of energy emanating from his opponent; even breathing was now a laborious endeavor for the Hyuga.

"Let's begin," Naruto said nonchalantly; before Neji could register Naruto's words the ninja had closed the distance between the two combatants and punched Neji in the abdomen, sending the Hyuga flying. It had all happened at speeds too fast for Kakashi and Sasuke, who had both activated their Sharingans, to follow.

As the jaws of everyone in the stands dropped to the floor Naruto, having gotten enhancements for both his normal speed and his flash step due to the release, moved into Neji's "flight path", grabbed his shirt collar, and tossed him towards a nearby cospe of trees; before Neji could even reach those trees, however, Naruto appeared to the Hyuga's right and proceeded to hit him with a palm strike to his side. Naruto continued this pattern of striking and intercepting Neji as such speeds that the afterimages he left in is wake were able to land their own attacks on the helpless Hyuga; to the spectators Neji appeared as if he were a pinball in a broken machine as his injuries piled up.

After Naruto broke half of Neji's ribs, half of his bones, and ruptured three of his organs, he decided that Neji was though and went to drive his point home; he appeared in front of the Hyuga yet again and grabbed his shirt collar before he threw him twenty feet into the air. Naruto then appeared above the Hyuga before he elbowed him in the abdomen rupturing another organ. Then, to the surprise of the spectators, Naruto grabbed Neji before he could fall to the ground; Naruto then floated down gently before placng his opponent on the ground.

After Naruto was declared the winner, three minutes after the fight had begun, the ninja resealed, and sheathed, his zanpakuto, which returned to its sword form, which caused him to revert to his previous appearance. After picking up his forehead protector, the cloth of which was black instead of blue after Naruto had swapped the cloth a week earlier, which had fallen during the fight Naruto went to where he had placed Neji and proceeded to use his healing Kido to treat the Hyuga's wounds; in place of reiatsu Naruto used Neji's chakra for the same effect since Neji still had almost all of his chakra, not being able to use it in the battle. Once he finished healing, and lecturing, the Hyuga two medics carried him on a stretcher to take him away for treatment of his remaining injuries.

After a few more moments of slience Tiraran's voice could be heard by the everyone in the stadium.

"Way to kick ass, Naruto-sama!" she roared happily as the rest of the audience gave the victor a big round of applause. Naruto simply smirked and raised his right fist in victory before he "flew" to the viewing area that set aside for the finalists.

While talking to Sasuke and Shino about their upcoming fights Kakashi, who was watching from his seat, couldn't help but smile at the boy's growth, even if no one saw him.

"_He's long surpassed both of us, Minato-sensei,_" Kakashi thought to himself, happy to see that faith Minato placed in his son was rewareded.

Naruto, meanwhile, proceeded to watch the next fights; though he didn't appear to be aware of it Naruto had already noted the looks of killer intent he was getting from the red-haired Jinchuriki who was to be his next opponent...

Next Time - The Two Vessels: Naruto vs. Gaara


	16. 15 The Two Vessels

**Chapter 15 – The Two Vessels: Naruto vs. Gaara**

A/N # 1: The poll that I posted at the time I wrote Chapter 13 is still open so please vote quickly; it will close as soon as I post the first chapter in which the "certain group of shinobi" make their first appearance.

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Disclaimer: Still applies

[Chunin Exams Stadium, Konohagakure]

_Current Time…._

Compared to Naruto's performance the other two fights were not viewed with as much enthusiasm on the part of the spectators; this was due to the fact that the other finalists did not have as much to offer as the blonde-haired ninja, insofar as skill is concerned, as well as the fact that everyone wanted to see the fight that most of them had come to see. Though it was not offical until today almost everyone assumed, correctly, that the first match of second round of the Chunin Exam Finals would be between Naruto and his fellow Jinchuriki, Gaara; many of the foreign lords and daimyos had, in fact, come to Konoha specifically to watch this much-anticipated slugfest.

After both Shino and Sasuke won their fights, beating Kankuro and Temari respectively, Genma announced that there would be a 30-minute interim before the next round. Naruto was staring into the ether when Shino decided to ask him something.

"Have you noticed that neither Sakura nor Sasuke have returned yet?" the member of Team 8 asked to which Naruto nodded; Sakura had gone somewhere after Sasuke's fight with Temar ended and, after 25 minutes, had still not returned. This wouldn't have been as big of an issue if it wasn't for the fact that Sakura's teammates had realized that Gaara had also gone somewhere; after Gaara returned, 10 minutes after he left, Naruto had asked Sasuke to go see where Sakura had gone to, suspecting that comething was wrong. If anything had happened to her Sasuke was to launch his Fireball Jutsu into the sky to warn Naruto; as the interim period ended, however, Sasuke was, apparently, still looking for the kunoichi.

Naruto, knowing that his fight with Gaara was about to begin, Flash Stepped to his fracciones' seats and whispered something into their ears before he Flash Stepped to the stadium floor. Gaara, meanwhile, looked at his opponent with a maniacal grin that seethed of killer intent and sheer bloodlust before he walked down to the floor. After Gaara finally got to the fighting area he stood in front of Naruto, looking at him eye-to-eye as the ninja unsheathed his zanpakuto yet again. Genma almost couldn't start the match amidst the roar of the crowd.

"Ready, begin!" he said; the sand that Gaara carried was suddenly unleashed upon Naruto, who simply Flash Stepped several yards away. Naruto then saw that his opponent place his hands on his head while cringing in pain.

"Don't get so mad...Mother," Gaara said, seemingly to himself, unnerving his siblings who were watching the fight; they had only received minor wounds in their matches and had returned to the finalist's viewing area.

"Damn it, the **conversation **has already started," Kankuro said to Temari; she nodded in reply.

"We shouldn't be surprised that Gaara would find him that much an opponent; as far as I'm concerned Gaara's the one in actual danger in this battle," Temari reasoned; no matter what she, or Kankuro, tried they could never forget their encounter with Naruto in the Forest of Death over a month back.

While his sibilings considered the possibility of him losing control Gaara was still in the middle of his "conversation".

"I know that I fed you some bad blood all this time. I'm sorry; don't worry, though, because this time... it will be delicious," Gaara claimed to whomever this "Mother" being was; Naruto, who was well aware of whom Gaara was refering to, decided to finally confront the elephant in the room, so to speak.

"You shouldn't listen to Shukaku like that, Gaara; he'll only end up consuming your own being," Naruto warned his fellow Jinchuriki. This shocked Gaara enough to snap him out of his psychotic ramblings.

"So know about him, do you?" the Sand ninja asked to which his opponent nodded.

"Then how could you possibly understand me and what I have been through, Uzumaki?!" Gaara roared; despite being similar to the question that provoked him during his fight with Neji, however, Naruto was not enraged by it and, in fact, the look in eyes had a flicker of sadness in them.

"You know the answer to that, Gaara; you saw it in my fight with the Hyuga," Naruto replied very matter-of-factly; Gaara realized what Naruto was talking about, but still refused to listen to his fellow Jinchuriki.

"All the more reason to kill you; that is how I confirm my exist. Because I must love only myself; that is what decides who is the strongest!" Gaara ranted, expecting Naruto to get intimidated by "his" bloodlust; what Naruto did next, however, surprised Gaara. The blonde ninja gave an angry glare, not towards Gaara but towards his siblings. Whle the other spectators didn't understand the reason behind the direction of that glare the two Sand Shinobi did, if the fact that they both lowered their heads in apparent shame was anything to go by; Naruto, without using words, was saying "_you two, and your entire village for that matter, should be ashamed of yourselves for turning your own brother into what he is now". _

Naruto, while not looking at his opponent, did notice a large wave of sand coming at him; after easily dodging Gaara's attack Naruto, eyeing the Sand ninja, prepared to use a Hado spell when something caught his, and everyone else's, eye.

It was a giant fireball that had been launched into the sky, several miles outside of Konoha; Naruto was, naturally, the only one who understood what it meant. Naruto gripped his blade as if he was going to slash at something.

"Kurama, Hitotsume: Nadegiri," Naruto said; before anyone realized what had happened Naruto had moved right behind Gaara and sheathed his blade. Everyone in the stands then looked on in shock as Gaara's body split in two; the spectators were further bewildered when the two halves turned to sand and floated away into the wind.

"_It's as I feared,_" Naruto thought to himself before he turned to Genma, who looked as though he hadn't been fazed by what was happening, and whispered something into his ear. The exam proctor nodded in reply to what Naruto had said before the blond ninja flash stepped to the direction from where the fireball had come from.

The spectators, not knowing what was going on, were getting restless as Genma announced that the match would be delayed due to unfortunate circumsatnces; the proctor then appeared before the Third Hokage, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Jango, Tiraran, and Gaara's squad leader, a Sand Village jonin named Baki, to discuss the current situation...

[Several Miles Outside of Konoha]

_Meanwhile... _

Sasuke was in the worst situation in his young life after the night of his clan's massacre; Gaara, as Naruto suspected, had attacked Sakura and knocked her unconcious before he pinned her to a tree with his sand. The Sand Jinchuriki intended to have Naruto come to where he was so that he could kill the Leaf ninja without any interference from the other Lead ninja. Sasuke, however, had found Gaara first after tracking down Sakura to her, and Gaara's, current location within a massive forest; the Uchiha was now fighting a losing battle against Gaara who, after becoming enraged that he was not facing someone worthy of "his" desire to kill, had partially transformed into Shukaku. The gourd on Gaara's back had slowly broken down and had covered his right arm, and then the right side of his face; Gaara's face had become distorted and was beginning to look more like Shukaku's, with yellow eyes and markings around those eyes. Gaara even grew a crude tail, which had sprouted from the broken gourd; though it was not Shukaku's true tail it could still, to a smaller extent, be used in the same manner. The change in Gaara's appearance also an increase in his power as Sasuke was finding out the hard way.

"_What do I do, dammit!? I'm running out of options,_" Sasuke thought to himself. The Uchiha prodigy had used up three-quarters of his chakra trying to take the Jinchuriki down with the Chidori, which he had learned from Kakashi in the month before the Finals; because of Gaara's sand, however, neither of the two Chidoris Sasuke had used had done anything more the to provoke his opponent and, as of now, two Chidoris per day was his absolute limit. The only reason that Sasuke was still alive was because of his Sharingan, which already had three tomoes. The only thing Sasuke could do now against the rampaging Gaara was to stall him long enough for Naruto to arrive as the Uchiha willing to admit, to himself anyways, that his teammate was the only one who could stop this guy.

Gaara, who had had enough of Sasuke's dodging, decided to place the Uchiha into a trap; he first shot part of his sand into the air before transforming into a drill-like sand spear and launching it at, to Sasuke's horror, at the pinned down Sakura.

"What're going to do now, Uchiha? If you don't stop this attack your teammate dies!" Gaara roared ecstatically; the Jinchuriki was certain that Sasuke, with his desire for revenge, would flee for his life even though he wouldn't be able to escape either way. The Sand ninja was suprised, therefore, when Sasuke did something that was, to put lightly, very drastic in nature.

The sand spear did draw blood... Sasuke's blood, to be more precise, as he got in the path of the attack with only a few feet seperating the spear from its intended target; the spear had lodged itself in Sasuke's lower right abdomen, meaning that the most critcal organs were not destroyed. The pain was still excrutiating, however, and neither the blood loss nor Gaara's psychotic rantings made it any better.

"Now do see how weak you have become, Uchiha? This is because you have been losing the hatred that was welling within you; your strength will never compare to mine. Your little sacrifice is only delaying the inevitable, in any case, as the girl will die soon enough!" Gaara ranted as the spear that had impaled Sasuke dissapated; after Sasuke fell to his knees, clutching his wound with his left hand, Gaara lunged at the Uchiha, fully intending to kill him right there on the spot.

"Move, dammit, move,"Sasuke said to himself as the memories of his time with Team 7, as well as those of his family before the massacre, swirled through his mind.

"_If I can't save Sakura's life, how will I be able to face my parents ever again?_" Sasuke thought to himself; in all the time, before Naruto's question,that Sasuke had been preparing to avenge his clan he had actually forgotten about the clan itself, only remembering that he had lost them that fateful night. Despite the fact that he still has not decided whether whether he should, or shouldn't, avenge his clan he did know that, for now, he couldn't live with himself if he couldn't protect his teammate.

"I can't...I won't...I WON'T LOSE TO YOU, GAARA!" Sasuke roared; as Sasuke gave the loudest war cry in the history of the Shinobi World, which was coupled with his use of his remaining chakra, something happened to him.

Maybe it was his newfound resolve to protect his friend, the memories of his family, his fear of losing someone close to him yet again, or a combination of any of these sentiments but, whatever the reason was, Sasuke's Sharingan had changed, having a black background with three red ellipses in the center. The moment this occured Gaara's right arm was, to his complete surprise, suddenly enveloped by a black flames; though the flames, apparently, could not burn through the sand that had enveloped Gaara's arm it shocked the Jinchuriki enough to try to put them out, though that soon proved to be futile as the flames just kept burning. As Gaara kept trying to dispel the flames Sasuke, who managed to get to his feet (Gaara had stopped his attack on the Uchiha), was struggling to figure out what just happened when, to his relief, he heard a voice of someone that he had been waiting for this whole time.

"Getsuga Tenshō!" the voice roared as a cresent-shaped wave of Reiryoku hurdled towards Gaara, smaking the right side of the right side of the Sand Jinchuriki's body; the attack sent Gaara flying fast enough for the black flames to come off, though this didn't mean his situation had improved.

Sasuke's view of the Sand ninja's predicament was suddenly obscured when Naruto, who had seen Sasuke's fireball a few moments earlier, appeared in front of him; the blonde-haired ninja was facing Gaara#

"Bakudo # 79. Kuyō Shibari," Naruto said; eight black holes with purple outlines, each of them emitng Reiryoku, suddenly surrounded Gaara while a ninth black hole manifested itself in the center of Gaara's chest. Gaara was, like in his encounter with Naruto in the Forest of Death, completely immobilized by the Kido as Naruto turned to check on his teammates. Naruto was suprised that Sasuke's eyes had a new design; thanks to what he had learned in both Las Noches and the scrolls in his dad's estate, however, he already knew what that technique was.

"I'm actually impressed, if only slightly, for once, Sasuke; to have already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan at this point is something that, supposedly, has never happened before," Naruto complimented (A/N: I'll will be using an abbreviation, MS, of the dojutsu when I write about it outside of any dialogue). As the Namikaze-Uzumaki clansman healed Sasuke and Sakura, whom he had freed from Gaara's sand, he warned Sasuke that while the Amaterasu, the MS jutsu that Sasuke had just used on Gaara, was powerful he should use it, along with any other MS jutsu he might awaken, sparingly if he didn't want to go blind.

"I'm a Uchiha so I already learned about the risks, Naruto; besides I didn't willfully use that jutsu," Sasuke explained. Naruto, having finished his healing of the unconcious Sakura, nodded in reply.

"Sasuke, I want you to take Sakura with you to Konoha so that the medics can treat you for any remaining injuries, since I don't have enough time to treat them all myself; I also want you to tell the Old Man that I don't want any interference in this battle," Naruto requested. Naruto was rather surprised to see that Sasuke actually nodded in understanding and proceded to do what Naruto had asked of him; though the Uchiha did not want to leave his teammate behind he knew that, with his chakra drained and his inexperience with the MS, there was nothing he could do to help his teammate.

After Sasuke left, with his incapacitated kunoichi teammate in tow, Naruto waited until he sensed that they had reached Konoha; when they did he released Gaara from the Kido that he had used to immobilize him. Despite the terrible things that Gaara had done until then Naruto, knowing all too well the pain that Gaara had gone, and still was going, through due to his life as a Jinchuriki, was determined, more so then ever before, to save his fellow Jinchuriki from the darkness in his heart; Naruto realized, however, that his actions in this battle would be only thing that would get his message to reach Gaara's heart.

As Naruto prepared to release Kurama, Gaara, enraged at the fact that Naruto was able to bind him yet again, prepared to use Shukaku's full power. At this point Naruto heard Kurama's voice speak out to him.

"_Are you sure you want to do this Naruto? You know you don't even need to release me in order to defeat Shukaku,_" Kurama reminded his Jinchuriki; the truth was that Naruto could have simply used a mid to high-level Hado or one of his Hollow attacks to defeat his opponent and Kurama had expected his friend to use one of those methods. Naruto prefered to not reveal his hand, so to speak, in a battle any more than he had to; even if Naruto did enjoy a good fight he did not like to use excess force and would refrained from doing so unless there was a good reason to do otherwise.

"_If I just wanted to defeat him then I wouldn't be using this; if I'm to reach Gaara, however, I need to use my full power in order to get my message across,_" Naruto replied; Kurama simply smirked, glad to hear that Naruto did, as he had told his tailed beast back at Las Noches a few days before his return to the Shinobi World, truly want to help the other Jinchuriki and decided not to press the questions any further as Naruto got into his release stance.

As this was going on Gaara, determined to go all out against Naruto, used his sand to complete the full transformation into the Shukaku, who had the appearance of a sand-brown colored tanuki with black markings all across his body that was the size of the Hokage Monument. Gaara's upper body emerged from the top of Shukaku's head as Naruto "flew" until he reached eye level with his fellow Jinchuriki.

"Now show me your full power so that I can unleash the power of the Shukaku and grind your power into dust!" he yelled, unaware that Naruto had planned to do that anyways.

Naruto took a deep breath to clear his mind, which he always did whenever he was going to release Kurama, before he stated his zanpakuto's release command.

"Devastate, Kurama: Furu Henkan - Tsui Dan (A/N: The last part roughly translates to "Full Transformation - Final Stage)" Naruto said as his blade, minus the red wrappings, disintegrated...

Next Time - On Opposite Ends: Shukaku and Kurama Clash!

A/N # 2: I know some readers will take it this way so I'll say it right now, I'm not bashing Gaara in any sense; I'm just trying, to the best of my ability, give an accurate portrayal.

A/N # 3: Since I also know that some of you may get confused by the differnences in Naruto's release command the part of the command that comes after "Devastate, Kurama" depends on which paticular release form Naruto is use in any given battle. I just want to avoid confusing of you readers.

A/N # 4: If this chapter is not as good as the previous three then I apologize greatly for disappointing you readers out there; I've have a small cold right now so that might be effecting my ability to write.


	17. 16 On Opposite Ends

**Chapter 16: On Opposite Ends: Shukaku and Kurama Clash!**

A/N: I apologize for the delay; I've been swamped with a lot of University papers over the pass few weeks (I'll never take four classes at once ever again).

Please keep faving, following, and reviewing.

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Somewhere Along Konoha's Massive Wall]

_Current Time..._

Preparations to defend Konoha, in case of an attack by the Shukaku, were nearly completed when a sudden surge of energy emanated from the current location of the Jinchuriki. This power was not, however, from the Shukaku; this was all the more obvious when the reactions from Naruto's Fracciones are taken into account.

"D-d-d-did you j-j-just sense that... Jango?" Tiraran blurted out; the Fraccion was somewhat intimidated whenever she sensed this familiar reiatsu.

"We all sense it, Tiraran; just shut up," Jango replied back; like his partner, however, Jango was also unnerved by the energy they were sensing.

Kakashi, who was aiding the evacuation of the remaining villagers, had also sensed the massive energy and was concerned by the reaction of the two Arrancars.

"Did something happen to Naruto, Jango-san?" the jonin asked the more level-headed of the two Fracciones.

"That's not it at all, Kakashi-san; Naruto-sama is alright# It''s just, well### how to say it without causing panic... Naruto-sama has just... (sigh) Naruto-sama has just unleashed the full power of his zanpakuto," Jango said as Kakashi's visible eye widened in shock. Naruto had told Kakashi, like he did with Jiraiya and the Sandaime, of the nature of his "blade" shortly after passing the bell test so as to prevent any misunderstandings should he actually release the zanpakuto during a mission.

"Is this release really that dangerous?" Kakashi asked; even though he, or anyone else in Konoha, hadn't seen the full release of Kurama he could tell, from his talks with the blonde-haired ninja and from what he has seen of his abilities, that Naruto really appeared to be in control of the tailed beast.

"If you're the enemy, then yes; if not, there's no danger to you. However..." Jango said; Kakashi got the sense that just talking about this made the two Fracciones' skin crawl.

"Let's just put it this way; Tiraran and I saw Naruto-sama's full release once and that, Kakashi-san, was one time too many," Jango said; Kakashi shuddered at this, wondering how powerful this release was if even Naruto's followers were scared of it.

[Several Miles Outside of Konoha, Shinobi World]

_Meanwhile..._

Recap:

"Now show me your full power so that I can unleash the power of the Shukaku and grind your power into dust!" he yelled, unaware that Naruto had planned to do that anyways.

Naruto took a deep breath to clear his mind, which he always did whenever he was going to release Kurama, before he stated his zanpakuto's release command.

"Devastate, Kurama: Furu Henkan - Tsui Dan," Naruto said as his blade, minus the red wrappings, disintegrated.

As the wrappings began to envelop the ninja they began to glow; this time, however, the wrappings changed color, becoming orange as they were enveloping Naruto. An orange light soon emanated from the ninja as his reaitsu suddenly exploded; as the dust cleared, Naruto stood before his opponent, his appearance changed.

Naruto was now covered by an orange reiatsu shroud, with the reiatsu appearing in the form of flickering flames, which was parted down the middle and opened into a large full-length coat. Underneath this coat there was a black undergarment with magatama beck near his neck collar and, curiously, an orange reiatsu chest plate with a design that appeared similar to Naruto's gauntlets and spaulders. Throughout the shroud numerous dark circles, representing the altered seal, could be seen; the cloak also emanated nine tail-like appendages, each one having a single line running down their centers, that flowed from the cloak's backside. Naruto's eyes had slit pupils and his whiskers became much thicker, while his hair now spike up towards the front into two horn-like pieces.

This form, thanks to the conversion from chakra to reiatsu, was powerful enough to defeat all 10 of the Espada simultaneously and could, if Naruto wanted to do so, turn Las Noches into a pile of rubble. In other words Gaara, having wanted a fight, unknowingly gotten more than he bargained for. Unaware of what he was dealing with the Sand shinobi prepared to unleash the Shukaku.

"Feigning Sleep Jutsu," Gaara said as he made a hand sign; Gaara was then rendered unconcious while the irises of his Shukaku transformation changed from light brown to yellow, signifying that Shukaku had taken over his host. This became more obvious when the Tailed Beast itself spoke.

"I'M FINALLY OUT!" Shukaku said in a tone that gave Naruto the impression that he was an angry drunk; what Shukaku said next only served to steel Naruto's resolve, if it could be strengthened any further, to save Gaara.

"AND LOOKS LIKE I'M IN LUCK TODAY; THE FIRST THING I GET TO KILL IS YOU, KURAMA!" Shukaku roared, having sensed the brother he despised the most. As Naruto simply looked on, completely unfazed by Shukaku's psychotic ranting, heard Kurama's voice.

"_If Gaara stays alseep for too long his psyche will be completely swallowed up by my psychopath of a brother,_" the Tailed Beast explained.

"_Then we'll just have to wake Gaara up fast,_" Naruto replied, having guessed that the exposed upper half of his opponent was the weak point.

Shukaku, completely filled with a insatialble desire to kill Naruto and his Tailed Beast, swung his left arm at his target; to Shukaku's completely shock Naruto was able to block his arm with only one hand, an even greater feat condsidering the fact that Naruto had only been pushed a few feet back. Naruto raised his eyebrow at his opponent.

"_Damn, I need find someway to practice using with this release if Shukaku was able to get me to budge,_" Naruto thought to himself.

With the Shukaku still in shock at having been blocked Naruto manifested Kurama's head or, to be more specific, a translucent version of his head that was still in Kurama's form; Naruto then had this head bite off Shukaku's left arm before he had the manifested head dissipate. Shukaku was, naturally, enraged at this.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Shukaku roared before he opened his mouthed and began generating a Tailed Beast Ball. After Shukaku quickly finishing the buildup of chakra he then fired his attack; what didn't realize, due to his rage, the Tailed Beast's attack went way off course... as it was headed in the direction of Konoha. Thankfully, for everyone in the village, Naruto was already ten steps ahead of Shukaku and had already prepared a response, if the fact that he had his right index finger pointed in the path of the Tailed Beast Ball was anything to go by.

"Cero Oscuras," Naruto said as a beam of pitch black reiatsu, with an orange outine, shot out of his finger. The Cero intercepted Shukaku's attack, with the resulting explosion leveling a 70 mile-diameter of the forest they were fighting in and replacing it with a 40-mile crater; thanks to Naruto's foresight, however, Konoha was left untouched by the devastation with the startled reactions, on the part of the people in Konoha, being the only real damage done.

Shukaku was, once again, taken by surprise by this display of power and, as such, had failed to notice that he opponent was right in front of him until he was standing before Gaara's exposed upper body. With the increase in Naruto's speed while in this form, which was the at least 20 times greater than the speed of his Zensō release, he wouldn't have needed a distraction as Shukaku, or anyone else in Shinobi World, could read his movements at these speeds.

Naruto, using the lapse in Shukaku's reaction time, threw a right cross that made contact with Gaara's face; Naruto had intentionally thrown a very soft punch, however, as his strength, which had also been increased to an unfathomable level with this release, could turn Gaara to dust with a single punch if he threw a punch too hard. The blow was still strong enough to acheive its intended purpose: to wake Gaara up, though the injuries he sustained were still severe; Shukaku began to curse both Kurama and his Jinchuriki before he was resealed into Gaara by his waking up.

Shukaku's rage, of course, did not go away; it was simply replaced by Gaara's wrath.

"I'll kill you for this outrage, Naruto Uzumaki!" Gaara hissed. Before he realized it, however, Gaara realized that Naruto was suddenly inches from his face; in his shock Gaara almost failed to hear Naruto's next sentence.

"This fight's over, Gaara," Naruto said as he struck Gaara's right chest with a palm strike.

With Gaara's body no longer able to hold the Shukaku trasformation with his injuries the manifestation of Shukaku crumbled away before dissolving back into sand; Gaara fell to the ground, the mound of sand he fell on softening his collision as Naruto gently descended to the ground. When he finally reached the ground Naruto resealed his zanpakuto; as the sword rematerialized, and the red wrappings returning to the hilt, his reiatsu shroud dissipated as he returned to his prior state. He then headed to where Gaara had fallen, face-first, and were now lay, too weakened by his fight with Naruto to even stand though his injuries were nowhere near as severe as those that Naruto inflicted on Neji, his previous opponent.

The Sand shinobi saw Naruto walking towards him and was filled with fear at what he thought the Konoha shinobi would do to him.

"Stay away from me; I will not let you end my existence!" Gaara roared; in reality, however, there was nothing he could do as his weakened condition even rendered his ability to defend himself with his sand. As Naruto now stood in front of him Gaara braced himself for his end; after a few minutes passed, however, with nothing happening Gaara opened his eyes and saw Naruto on one knee... healing him. Gaara was almost left speechless by this.

"Why, Uzumaki? Why would you heal an enemy?" Gaara asked; Naruto shook his head before he replied.

"You heard me when I spoke to you at the stadium but you failed to listen to what I said. So I'll say it again; I know what you've been through. The hate-filled stares... the loneliness... the fact that your fellow villages try to deny your very existence... the pain from these things are the same no matter where they take place. I've gone through that hell of being alone," Naruto calmly said to Gaara as he finished healing him; he didn't fully heal the Sand ninja, however, in order to make sure he could not attack him but he did get rid of Gaara'a most life-threatening injuries. As Naruto stood Gaara up and helped him walk back to Konoha he told Gaara about how he refused to give up in getting people to acknowledge him and that over time he eventually began to gain that recognition and that, to protect those who are important to him, Naruto became stronger. Gaara was left speechless by this.

After he finished his explanation Naruto noticed that they finally reached the main gate of Konoha and was surprised to see that the entire village, not just the Sandaime, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and his Fracciones, were there waiting for him. After spotting the blonde-haired ninja the crowd gave a, to Naruto's surprise, a hero's welcome; while he knew he would change the villager's view and that it had, in fact, begun to change he never could have imagined that those opinions would change so soon. Naruto could only smile at this as he got to the gate, with Gaara in tow.

Naruto turned to face the Third Hokage.

"I guess it's fair to say that these Chunin Exams are over," Naruto said.

"Indeed, Naruto, but not before you made an early impression on the judges," Hiruzen said; Naruto took a few moments before he understood what the Third meant to say.

"So I'm a Chunin now?" Naruto asked rhetorically; he flashed a smile before he continued speaking.

"I promise you that I won't let Konoha down. By the way, I need to ask you for a couple of things," Naruto said; he continued when Hiruzen nodded.

"First, are Sasuke and Sakura alright?" he asked, noting that his two teammates were not present; that 2-ton elephant, so to speak, was lifted off his back when the Hiruzen nodded to the affirmative.

"Second, could you get a medic for Gaara?" Naruto asked; this was answered when he noted that a stretcher was already there.

After placing Gaara on the stretcher he asked the medics there to take care of him before they carried him to the hospital; Temari, Kankuro, and Baki, who were in the crowd, went with Gaara, Naruto having been stopped by Hiruzen so that the Hokage could discuss some things with him. As the three Sand shinobi walked alongside Gaara they heard his voice.

"Temari, Kankuro, Baki... I'm sorry," he said; this caught the three shinobi completely by surprise. The three Sand Shinobi looked at each other for a few moments before any of them made a response.

"It's... It's okay, Gaara," Kankuro stammered out; Temari could only look towards the direction that they came from.

"_I don't what what you said to him or why, but thank you, Naruto Uzumaki,_" Temari thought to herself as she and her male teammates arrived at the hospital; she could tell that, in this one battle, something had changed in her brother...

[Namikaze Estate, Konoha Outskirts]

_Several Days Later..._

Naruto, now a full-fleged Chunin, had said his farewells to Gaara and his siblings as they headed back to Suna half an hour ago and was now waiting for his Fracciones at his estate; they were often exploring the area in and around Konoha so it took the messenger he sent several minutes just to locate the Arrancars. He would have preferred to have Haku there as well to explain the situation to her as well but she was on a mission in the Land of Frost and was not going to return for a few weeks. After another ten minutes of waiting Jango arrived, followed by Tiraran a few minutes later.

"What's wrong, Naruto-sama?" Tiraran asked as Naruto looked at both of them wth a very serious expression on his face.

"You two remember what I told you a few days ago?" Naruto asked his Fracciones. It didn't take the Arrancars very long to figure out what Naruto was referring to.

"So _they _are finally making their move," Jango asked. Naruto sighed a bit before he nodded.

"The Akatsuki have begun the hunt for the Tailed Beast; they're probably getting unnerved by the news of my 'exploits' over the past few of months and it's beginning to show in their actions. That said, however, I do not wabt any chances taken with these shinobi. Though they won't be much of an for any of us the other Konoha shinobi are a different matter entirely," Naruto explained; he knew that he could handle the Akatsuki himself and, unless he catches wind of a attack on a fellow Jinchuriki, he was willing to wait for them to come to him since the only thing they would find is a swift death. Naruto was much more concerned for the safety of Konoha and wanted to make sure that it wasn't caught in the crossfire.

"If you guys encounter them at any time I want you to proceed with caution if you engage them. Understood?" Naruto said as they replied in the affirmative before they left.

"_Now that that's been settled it's time I deal with the second fire for today,_" Naruto thought to himself as he Flash Stepped to the Hokage Tower...

Next Time - The Truth


	18. 17 The Truth

**Chapter 17 – The Truth**

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Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Hokage Tower, Konoha]

_Current Time..._

Naruto was speaking with the Third Hokage about something that surprised even the old Sarutobi clansman; he had seen and heard many things in his long life but what Naruto was explaining to him easily topped all of his experiences. What Naruto had asked of him was also a bit of a surprise.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Naruto? What if it has the opposite effect of what you want; he could very well-" Hiruzen said before Naruto interrupted him.

"If that happens then I'll do what has to be done; if he is not told now, however, that man will tell him the truth... or at least part of it. If he's told now maybe he'll follow the path _he_ had wanted him to follow," Naruto said, to which Sarutobi nodded in reply.

"Very well then, Naruto; if you think that is the best course of action then I'll allow it. You will, however, tell him, and only him, in my office and under my watch. Now go find him," Sarutobi said to which Naruto nodded before he set out to find "him".

[Konoha Training Grounds]

_A few moments later..._

Sasuke, having obtained his MS during his battle with Gaara, was now training with Kakashi to control the dojutsu; it was very difficult since Sasuke, like any other MS wielder, had to be carefully when using the. It would've been more difficult, however, had Kakashi not revealed that he had the dojutsu and knew of its special jutsus; Sasuke was surprised by this but, despite his curiosity, had decided not to ask his sensei how he had aquired the dojutsu yet for various reasons.

As Sasuke was attempting to master the Tsukuyomi, the MS jutsu that he had the greatest difficulty using, he noticed that Kakashi had turned his attention elsewhere; an irritated Sasuke was about to question Kakashi until he saw Naruto walk up to their team leader and whisper something into his ear. Kakashi nodded and turned turned his attention to Sasuke once Naruto left.

"We're done for today, Sasuke; the Saindaime needs you see him in his office ASAP," Kakashi said; while Sasuke was undoubtedly annoyed by this he that if the Third was requesting his prescence he must have something important that he needs to discuss with him. He deactivated his MS before he walked to the office.

[Hokage's Office]

_Five Minutes Later..._

Sasuke arrived at the Academy complex and, upon approaching the office of the Hokage, was surprised to see that Naruto was standing outside the door; the blonde-haired shinobi, who had his arms crossed and had had his back lying on the wall, turned his to face Sasuke.

"You took your sweet time getting here," Naruto said rather bluntly.

"Not everyone can move at the speeds you're reaching, Naruto. Anyways... I take it this about my cl-"Sasuke said before Naruto held his hand up to his teammates face.

"Yes it is; I am only allowed to tell you, however, in this office and under the Old Man's watch. So let's take this conversation in there," Naruto said as he opened the door to the office and entered, motioning Sasuke to follow him. The Uchiha entered the room and saw the Sandaime seated behind his desk, while Naruto had taken a seat on a chair facing the desk. Sasuke waved off an offer to take an empty seat; the Uchiha had a sinking he would be standing the entire time anyways.

"I'm pretty sure you know why you have been called here?" Sarutobi asked to which Sasuke nodded.

After reminding Sasuke that whatever was said in this room stayed in this room Hiruzen had Naruto begin his story. He first told him about the truth of Kurama's attack, specifically the fact that a Uchiha had taken control of the Tailed Beast and used him to attack Konoha; Naruto had found some records about the events before the attack in the Namikaze Estate and, by piecing that together with the records at Las Noches, had a more complete picture of what happened that night than anyone else alive.

This story's importance was, not surprisingly, completely lost on Sasuke.

"What does that have to do with the death of my clan, Naruto?" Sasuke asked bluntly; Naruto was, not surprisingly, annoyed by Sasuke's impatience, even if he didn't.

"I'm getting there, Sasuke, so just hear me out..." Naruto said before he realized that he had just lost his train of thought.

"Now then, I was about to talk the masked man, right?" Naruto said as he turned to face Hiruzen who nodded in the affirmative. Naruto sighed before he continued his story; Sasuke, after spending enough time with Naruto as well as Sakura and Kakashi, knew that this meant that the part of the story Naruto was about to tell him was something would probably be hard for him to believe.

"The Masked Man has a lot to do with the massacre of your clan, Sasuke; you see Itachi may have been the one who did the dirty work... but, just like with Kurama's attack on Konoha, the Masked Man, who himself is a Uchiha, was the one truly responsible for the events that would lead to, and those during, the massacre," Naruto said before he stopped talking; it was only temporary, however, as Naruto only wanted to give his teammate enough time to register what he just said... since the things that he was going to reveal Sasuke would undoubtedly shock the Uchiha to the core.

It took a minute or so for Sasuke to actually respond to Naruto's statement.

"Wh-what are you talking about, Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto looked at the Uchiha dead in the eye before he continued his story; as he did Sasuke felt his stomach turn in upside-down and inside-out with each new part of the story.

The whole story was just so completely different from what he had been led to believe for the past five years; a masked man manipulating the evidence of Kurama's attack to implicate his clan... the clan's subsequent segregation... the manipulation of his clan, especially his father, by the hands of the Masked Man to attempt a coup d'etat against Konoha... Itachi being a double agent for the Konoha against his clan... the Sandaime's failed negotiations... and the details of the massacre itself. The fact that the death of his clan was a result of this mystery man's actions was enough of a shock Sasuke; even more unbelievable for Sasuke was that Itachi's true motivations for his actions was to protect both him, his beloved little brother, and Konoha, and to prevent another war from breaking out. Even what Itachi had told Sasuke before he left, to get stronger and to kill him, was to absolve the clan of its crimes; the idea that his brother had made himself as the villain mortified Sasuke.

The fact that Sasuke had managed to listen to everything Naruto had told him was nothing short of miraculous; the fact Sasuke said something only a few minutes after Naruto had finished his story was even more surprising.

"So does this mean... my brother-?" Sasuke asked before he was interrupted by Naruto.

"Yes," Naruto calmly replied; the Uzumaki's expression, which had been set in a serious tone, softened when he saw that his teammate was crying, having been shaken up by what he has just heard. After he stopped crying Sasuke faced Naruto and Hiruzen.

"I... I... I need some time to collect my thoughts," Sasuke said before he walked out of the office; Naruto was about to do the same until Hiruzen stopped him.

"Wait, Naruto; I have an important mission for you that'll require you to work with Jiraiya. I need to discuss it with," the Sandaime said.

"Really? And what would that be, Old Man?" Naruto asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Um... Yes, about that... have a seat, Naruto," Sarutobi said, knowing that even Naruto would get taken aback by what he was about to say...

[Jinchuriki Crater, 50 Miles Outside of Konoha]

_A Week Later... _

The site of Naruto's battle with Gaara, more specifically the crater created by the collsion between Shukaku's Tailed Beast Ball and Naruto's release-enhanced Cero Oscuras had occured over a layer of solid bedrock 100 yards under the forest that once stood; because the crater was 4 miles at its deepest point it was fair to say that, just like with the Valley of the End, this battle had left a scar on the earth itself. Small wonder that the place already was a named landmark, of sorts, and that the place already had an almost sacred reverence to it.

A lot of people visited the crater, mostly out of curiousity, including two figures who were standing on the south side of the crater; their curiousity, however, was for much more ominous reasons.

"So this is the battlefield between the Ichibi and Kyubi's Jinchuriki, huh? Very scary stuff there; imagine the devastation that would've been if this was Konoha," one of the figures said, to which simply glared at him, though his eyes were hidden bt the round straw-hats that both men were wearing.

"You should be more concerned about our mission, Kisame; our objective managed to defeat Orochimaru, the Ichibi, and your fellow Swordsmen," the other man warned.

"Ah, yes, poor Zabuza; he never knew what he was dealing with until it was too late," Kisame chided until he noted the tone of his companion's voice.

"Are you sure you won't be getting too sentimental on this mission, Itachi?" the former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist asked.

"...Absolutely," Itachi replied as they both set off for Konoha to find their target.

They were unaware that a certain green-haired girl was following them from a distance...

Next Time - Standoff: Akatsuki vs. Fracciones

A/N: For those of you who are wondering why did I end the previous poll earlier than I had claimed (the one about whether or not this story would continue into Part 2) it is because you readers, by a unanimous tally of 40-0 votes, the story will be going into Shippuden... eventually.


	19. 18 Standoff

**Chapter 18 – Standoff: Akatsuki vs. Fracciones**

Please keep sending faves, follows, and reviews.

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Unnamed Rest Stop, 20 Miles West of Konohagakure]

_Current Time…_

Kisame and Itachi had stopped at a small rest stop en route to where Naruto's after they had infiltrated Konoha and discovered his location. As they secretly discussed their plans to cature the shinobi they unaware of the fact that Tiraran, having spotted the Akatsuki members when they went to the Jinchuriki Crater, stood outside the small outlet as she waited for Jango, her partner, to arrive. He arrived ten minutes after her message, which she sent after spotting the S-rank missing-nins, had reached him; Jango had taken a few minutes to send a warning to Konoha before he Sonidoed towards Tiraran's location.

"Are they in there?" Jango asked as Tiraran simply smiled before she responded.

"Yep and they should be leaving in a few minutes," Tiraran replied.

Sure enough the two Akatsuki members had left the small rest stop as they continued their "search" for Naruto; after a few more miles the Fracciones, in order to get their target's attention, release some of their Reiatsu.

"Well, I guess they've finally decided to roll out the welcome wagon for you, eh, Itachi? Why don't you two come out of hid-" Kisame said as he turned around to face the pursuers; he stopped speaking, however, when he saw that the pursuers were already out in the open. Itachi, having gotten some intel on what to expect of their "target", realized who these two were the moment he got a good look at their opponents.

"That attire... so you're the two followers of Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchuriki of the Kyubi," Itachi said as both Arrancars unsheathed their zanpakutos.

"So you know who we are. You should know, then, with whom you're dealing with, Itachi Uchiha," Jango said as both Kisame and Itachi took off their straw hats.

"It would appear that our reputations precede us," Kisame said.

"I guess they do, fish man," Tiraran said, not knowing that Kisame did not take kindly to such remarks.

The Kiri missing-nin fixed his glare right at the female Arrancar who, as a further insult to Kisame, had bracelets on both of her wrists that were made out of teeth and claws of 10 or so different predatory animals... including a prominent shark's tooth on the left bracelet# There was a reason that she wore those bracelets, though Kisame obviously wasn't aware of this.

"You better watch what you say, little girl, or you might just find your head as Samehada's newest chew toy," Kisame warned her as he gripped the hilt of Samehada. Tiraran simply looked at the missing-nin with an innocent expression.

"Really? It looks like your sword would make a better soup than a weapon; how could it ever hurt anyone?" Tiraran said in a playful tone; that little insult was more than Kisame's pride could handle even with Itachi next to him.

"Why don't I show you, you little gaki," Kisame hissed as the bandages that were wrapped around Samehada, or at least, the bandages that were still bound to the sword, came off, revealing all the blue scales that formed the "blade" of the infamous weapon.

The Monster of the Hidden Mist, as Kisame was also known, then charged towards the 28th Arrancar and, once he had closed the distance between them, made a vertical chop aimed at the Tiraran's head; to the missing-nin's shock, however, he found that his target had somehow vanished without him even noticing when he saw that Samehada struck the ground. Kisame attempted to locate his opponent as he placed Samehada on his shoulder; Kisame's attempt to locate Tiraran ended, however, when the Arrancar herself made her presence known.

"If you were trying to hit me with that attack then you need to work on your aim with that toy; you could yourself killed otherwise," she teased; Kisame looked behind his back, where Tiraran's voice was coming from, to find that she was already behind him, the tip of her blade now pointing at the Akatsuki member's back.

Strangely enough, Kisame's irritated expression was now gone, having been replaced with a face that screamed excitement.

"You're actually much stronger than I thought, gaki; I have the feeling that I'll have to go all out if I want to defeat you," he said before he managed to create some distance between himself and the Numero.

Tiraran simply smiled at this.

"You're willing to go all out for me? If that's the case then I should at least be nice enough to do the same," she said.

Tiraran, to Kisame's shock, then stuck her blade to the ground before she then got one her right knee and closed her left hand into a fist, save for her middle and index fingers which she placed on the ground. Kisame didn't realize that he should have stopped Tiraran at that moment as the Arrancar was about to release her zanpakuto; by the time that Kisame realized that Tiraran was planning something it was too late.

"Hit your mark, Cazadora (A/N: Spanish for "Huntress")," Tiraran said before a large column of emerald green reiatsu with a black outline emanted around her...

[Elsewhere]

While Tiraran and Kisame were fighting their respective partners had already begun their battle as Itachi attempted to end the battle quickly with his MS; unfortunately for him Jango, having witnessed what Sasuke's MS could do, was able to counter every attack Itachi threw at him by keeping his eyes closed and relying on a combination of his Pesquisa and Sonido to detect and dodge the all of the Uchiha's attacks. Itachi realized that he was outmatched by Jango and, due to his limited chakra reserves and weakened endurance, he knew that he couldn't fight the Arrancar off forever and, to be perfectly blunt, Itachi wondered why he bothered fighting such a opponent who was only attempting to keep him away from Naruto; Itachi had no real intention of capturing the jinchuriki and, in fact, had every intention of making sure that his mission would be a "failure". The only reason that Itachi had even gone to Konoha was to make sure that Danzo, the leader of the Konoha Anbu organization Root, would continue to honor his promise to not harm Sasuke.

Itachi got out of his train of thought in time to dodge another Cero; before the Uchiha had time to counter, however, he found that Jango had already gotten behind him and was barely able to block a slash from the Arrancar's zanpakuto with the kunai knife that he had been using during the entire battle. Despite the lapse in their powers, however, Jango shared his opponent's lack of arrogance.

"You're indeed a very strong shinobi to have survived this battle for so long in spite your condition, Uchiha-san," Jango said; Itachi, despite his exhaustion, remained unfazed.

"You're not that bad yourself, though I'm more surprised by the fact that you show no real concern over your friend; it appears that she's already been forced to a great amount of her power," Itachi said to which Jango simply smirked, though his mask "fragment" hid this expression.

"I'm not worried about her safety because she wasn't forced into using that power by your partner; she's a free spirit in almost everyone way, right down to her battles and for her to fight on her own and not use her full power is something that has never happened. She's never showed any restraint in using her abilities unless either myself or Naruto-sama are within visual range; in other words, Uchiha-san, she's using her full power because she wants to. In any case she's actually stronger than I am; so if anyone is in any real danger it's your partner," Jango said which surprised Itachi; if she was only using full power against Kisame out of habit, and if she is truly stronger than the opponent he was facing now, what would happened if she had been here fighting him?

Itachi at that moment decided that, with the battles going downhill for both him and Kisame and having already learned where Naruto was, they had to fall back since he wasn't looking for a full-blown battle against Konoha. He had already conversed with Danzo so the only thing left to do was to botch his official mission and report back once he had done so; unfortunately for Itachi he couldn't tell the Fraccion any of this and, as a result, the Arrancar had no intention of letting him get away.

Jango and Itachi were so focued on each other's movements that they hadn't noticed that someone else had been closing in on their location until he made himself known.

"It's been a long time, Itachi," a familiar voice, to both Itachi and Jango, said.

Both combatants turned their attention to the source of the voice... which was none other than Sasuke.

"_Sasuke..._" Itachi thought with a great deal of sadness even if he didn't show it.

Jango was rather surprised by this development; not only was Sasuke's arrival unexpected but, since he had been told by Naruto of the young relations with his opponent, though not to it's full extent, the young Konoha shinobi was exhibiting a greater amount of confilct in his body language than the Numero had expected.

Sasuke turned his attention to the Fraccion.

"Jango, I need to confront him myself. Fall back," the "last" member of the Uchiha said.

To Sasuke's surprise Jango agreed to do it; even though Sasuke and Jango attempt, with a great deal of success, to improve their forced relationship (they both are often forced to deal with each other given their relationship with Naruto) the tensions between the two that had formed the day they met were stil present. The only reason that Jango had agreed to Sasuke's request was because Naruto had warned both him and Tiraran of the possibilty of such a situation occuring should the Akatsuki decide to have Itachi come after him; if this situation should occur and either of the Arrancars were caught in the middle of it Naruto had told his Fracciones to honor Sasuke's request to confront his brother alone should he make such a request and to only intervene should his teammate's life be in danger.

After Jango had gotten far enough that he couldn't hear either him or Itachi the young Uchiha turned to face his brother. If this encounter had occured a few months prior Sasuke would've undoubtedly attacked his older brother without hesitation; with everything that has occured in that time, however, Sasuke was simply unsure of what to do. Sasuke knew that Naruto had not been lying to him when he told Sasuke the truth behind the fate of his clan there was still a chance, in Sasuke's mind, that Naruto might've been wrong. The only way he felt he could confirm the validity of his teammate's words beyond any doubt was now in standing 20 feet in front of him.

Itachi had, like Jango, noticed the signs of his brother's internal conflict and, unaware of either the circumstances behind Sasuke's hesitation and his growth as a shinobi, tried to push his brother's psyche to its breaking point as he was still determined to have the Uchiha Clan's name redeemed with his own death.

"I let you live so that you can have a chance for revenge, for a chance to surpass me, and this is how you repay me? You're a disappointment, Sas-" Itachi said before Sasuke interrupted him.

"You can drop the act, Itachi; Naruto told me everything," Sasuke declared.

Itachi, though only reacting to this on the outside by raising an eyebrow, suddenly had a sinking feeling regarding the meaning of Sasuke's words take root in his gut.

"Everything? What do you mean by that, I wonder?" Itachi asked; though he still seemed unfazed by Sasuke's declaration he couldn't but wonder what the blonde-haired shinobi had told his brother...

Next Time - The Predator or the Prey: Tiraran vs. Kisame

A/N # 1: I apologize for the delay; though I don't like to give excuses for anything there are two reasons why I have taken soon long:

* * *

1. I have been preoccupied with my classes at FIU; 3 of my 4 professors, in the biggest display of irrational thought that I've witnessed as of now, decided to give the classes papers of 10 to 15 pages two weeks before the semester ended. I was barely able to submit these papers minutes before they were due as the papers were very difficult even for me.

* * *

2. When I had finally finished the aforementioned papers I decided to make yet another Naruto/Bleach crossover called "Naruto - Shinigami on the Prowl" and, as such, it took a bit more time to actually begin writing this chapter; this also means that the alternating cycle of updates for my stories has changed. Updates will now be made in the following order:

1. Kitsune of Las Noches

2. The Maelstrom and Deathberry

3. Naruto - Shinigami on the Prowl

* * *

I apologize for the wait and I hope this chapter was worth it.

* * *

A/N # 2: I apologize if you wanted to see more of Jango's abilities; I don't plan on having him reveal as much of his powers, however, until the story reaches Part 2 (AKA during the Shippuden timeline) since I have to work them out a little more and because of both his personality and the story plot.

A/N # 3: If you're wondering why Naruto is not in this chapter he won't reappear again until either the end of Chapter 20 or Chapter 21.


	20. 19 The Predator or the Prey

**Chapter 19 - The Predator or the Prey: Tiraran vs. Kisame**

A/N # 1: This story has reached both the 100 review mark and 200 faves/follows mark; I thank you readers for your continued support. I still ask that you keep sending more of these things, however.

A/N # 2: There are a couple of Spanish terms that I have translated for you readers; for the sake of the story, however, these translations are at the bottom of this chapter.

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Unspecified Location, 20 or so Miles Outside of Konoha]

Recap:

Tiraran, to Kisame's shock, then stuck her blade to the ground before she then got on her right knee and closed her left hand into a fist, save for her middle and index fingers which she placed on the ground. Kisame didn't realize that he should have stopped Tiraran at that moment as the Arrancar was about to release her zanpakuto; by the time that Kisame realized that Tiraran was planning something it was too late.

"Hit your mark, Cazadora (A/N: Spanish for "Huntress")," Tiraran said before a large column of emerald green reiatsu with a black outline emanted around her.

_Current Time…_

As the column of spiritual pressure continued to envelop Tiraran her opponent stood back shocked at this display of power.

"_Such power and yet it feels so different_ _from chakra; I can see why Samehada couldn't eat any of it,_" Kisame thought to himself; unlike all of his other opponents the missing-nin had noticed that this girl's energy was far too light and potent to be chakra, a theory that was given further credence when he noted that Samehada was unable to ingest any of that power.

Kisame snapped out of his thoughts when he saw that the column of energy suddenly dissipated; the swordsmen was then taken further aback when, from out of nowhere, a massive tree suddenly sprouted from the ground where the female Numero was kneeling on. The tree then enveloped Tiraran before it finished growing; the whole spectacle had gone on for three minutes by this time and, unbeknownst to Kisame, was about to end.

After a few seconds the a hole emerged from the side of the tree facing Kisame from which Tiraran came out, her appearance having completely changed from what it was prior.

Tiraran now wore a lightweight, green leather, sleeveless vest while a short-sleeved skirt that was made out of some sort of short black fur was seen underneath; said skirt extended to just above her knees and was covered in the hip area by a small apron that was the same color as her vest. The headband-like fragment of her mask was now an actual headband that was black in color while her green hair, which was already waist-length, was even longer than before; it now reached to her knees while two strands of it framed the side of her face and reached to her collarbones.

Tiraran also had a necklace made out of what appears to be the various claws and fangs that were seen on her bracelets, both of which were now gone, while her leggings had been replaced by short-length fur boots that were black in color. Her right boot has a sheath strapped to it that held an all-black and very large hunting knife while a similar knife, though green in color, was sheathed and placed on a belt strapped to her waist; in addition to the knives a green recurved bow with black horse hair attached to both ends was slung on her back.

Kisame just stood there for a few moments, in complete shock at what he was seeing, until he saw that his opponent had drawn out her bow which forced Kisame snapped out of his shock.

"_I don't know what she's planning to do but I have a feeling that even I don't want to find out,_" Kisame thought to himself as he moved towards a very large lake that was nearby.

Tiraran didn't make it easy for him, however, as she formed a green energy arrow with a fiery tip.

"Colmillo del Jaguar," Tiraran said as she released the the bowstring and sent the arrow flying at speeds greater than what a normal arrow should be capable of.

Kisame only had 30 seonds to respond, which he did by forming a few hand seals before he held both of his hands up; when Kisame finished the short sequence of hand signs some of the water from the lake, which was now about 50 or so yards away from where Kisame was located, surged towards Kisame; after the water enveloped Kisame the missing-nin then created a giant shark out of that water.

"Water Style: Super Shark Bomb Jutsu," he said as he thrusted both of his hands forward, which sent the water shark barreling towards the arrow.

Despite the impressive display of power Kisame was well aware of the fact that his attack was a gamble. This jutsu, for all the chakra used for it, normally drew most of its power from the chakra of the enemy's tachniques; this characteristic, which normally made the jutsu unstoppable, was a non-factor in this scenario, however, as Tiraran's arrow was made of Reiryoku, not chakra, and as such it couldn't be absorbed by Kisame's jutsu. Kisame could only hope that the jutsu can at least redirect the arrow.

The attacks collided 10 seconds after they had been launched; as Tiraran's Colmillo, which had puntured the shark-like entity that was Kisame's jutsu, penetrated deep into the technique Kisame had the shark change the direction of its surge, moving it to his right, just seconds before it was forcefully dispersed by the arrow. The change in direction was small, no more than a few feet, due to how quickly the shark had been destroyed after it had its course altered; luckily for Kisame the change was more than enough to cause the arrow to miss him by a few inches.

That arrow had somehow kept flying through the air for at least five miles before it finally detonated; the explosion that occured as a result was, if Kisame could've seen it, a mile high and was a magnificent shade of green that slightly masked its awesome power. The power behind the explosion was so great that the shockwave it generated could actually be felt 20 miles away as it flattened the three miles of forest that was in the vicinty of the explosion. What what Kisame didn't realize was that Tiraran, in her usual haste when using the Colmillo, had used only a tenth of the attack's true power; if the arrow had been launched at full power it would've actually been twice as powerful as Ulquiorra's Lanza del Relámpago. In other words Kisame had unknowingly dodged multiple bullets, in a methaphorical sense.

The power generated by the Colmillo was, ironically, also strong enough to send Kisame flying for several yards... before he plunged into the very lake that Tiraran had tried to prevent the Swordsman from reaching.

As Kisame swam the surface he wondered why his opponent, who was now standing on the shore of the body of water, used an attack that would have also struck her if it had actually hit him; if he hadn't been forced underwater he might've seen his answer dangling from Tiraran's neck as it glowed the same color as her arrow. The necklace of fangs, teeth, and claws that she wore contained many of Tiraran's different abilities, the most relevant of these in this situation being a sort protective talisman that would protect her from most attacks including all of her attacks. Whilw there were drawbacks to the necklace's protective capabilties the none of the foes Tiraran had faced so far were able to force her to point that such weakness could be exploited. Kisame was no exception to this pattern.

Once he got back on his feet Kisame performed another sequence of hand signs whilst standing on the water.

"Water Style: A Thousand Hungry Sharks," Kisame said as a massive wall of water formed which used to create one thousand sharks; this wall of water sharks soon surged towards Tiraran... who simply pointed her bow at the center of this jutsu before pulling back the bowstring.

"Dosel del Bosque," Tiraran said as she formed another green arrow, though one that was weaker than the Colmillo; when this arrow was at full power it is equal to one of Ulquiorra's Luz de la Luna javelins. This difference in power is seen in the form of the arrow itself as the fiery point that the other arrow had was noticably absent. Firepower was not the greatest asset of this attack, however, as Kisame was about to find out the hard way.

The Arrancar quickly released the bowstring which sent the arrow flying; that arrow then, to Kisame's horror, began to split apart into more arrows of equal size. The number of arrows kept growing and growing until, after a few seconds, there were at 5000 arrows barreling straight towards the sharks. It didn't take long before both attacks collided with; as the arrows began colliding with the water sharks it became clear that there were simply too many arrows, each of which was capable of destroying 15 sharks each, for Kisame's jutsu to withstand.

The wave of sharks was easily broken, leaving around 4300 arrows to coninue on their path; these arrows blocked out the skies above Kisame before they barrage of projectiles fell upon the former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist. The arrows began exploding as they impacted the surface of the lake; the thousands of explosions that rocked the area lasted for several minutes as the water in the lake was literally being pushed out by the explosions... until all the water was gone.

As the explosions winded down Tiraran looked at the scene of devastation with a bit of surprise in her face; her surprise was not from her attack, however.

"You're actually very strong, fish man, if you managed to survive that attack," Tiraran said as a single figure appeared in the middle of the column of smoke and steam that had arisen as a result of her attack.

Kisame, sure enough, was the one standing on the edge of what used to be a lake; though alive the Akatsuki member was severely wouneded after having been caught in the blast of 3 of Tiraran's arrows.

"_She's really good; if I hadn't merged with Samehada and dove underwater when I did... I would be dead right now,_" Kisame thought to himself as he considered his options.

Kisame knew that those options were limited. The missing-nin couldn't stand and fight against the Arrancar; his opponent would kill him very quickly if he did given the gap in their powers. Retreating was out of the question as well; Itachi was still fighting his opponent and, since Itachi was the one who knew where the jinchuriki of the Kyubi was located, Kisame knew that he had to go and aid him in his battle. With Tiraran keeping him pinned here, however, Kisame was in no position to aid his partner and, even if he was, he would still have to deal with Itachi's opponent... assuming he could live long enough to reach his partner.

As Kisame thought of what he should do Tiraran decided to give him an idea.

"You know you could just surrender, right? I'm sure the people in Naruto's village wouldn't mind having a new friend around," Tiraran said in a playful tone.

"_Note to self: remember to ask for the name of that village when I see_ _Naruto-sama,_" Tiraran thought to herself as she aimed her bow for Kisame's heart; these were the type of thoughts Tiraran had during most battles due to her personality and, most importantly, due to gaps in power between her and most of her opponents.

Kisame scoffed at the Numero's suggestion.

"Do you really think that I would actually agree to do something like that? You must be even more naive than I orginally thought, gaki," Kisame said.

Tiraran got steamed by Kisame's na#e-calling; the Arrancar was just as annoyed by her opponent's nickname for her as he was by the nickname that she had given him even if it hadn't shown up until that time.

"My name is not gaki; it's Tiraran so at least remember it, fish man!" she yelled in a childish manner.

Kisame guessed that her personality was either like this in every battle, or was due to the fact that she wasn't fighting him with even remote seriousness, or was a result of a combination of the two. The former Kiri-nin shook off these thought before giving an introduction of his own.

"And my name isn't fish man, Tiraran; my name is Kisame Hoshigaki. (sighs) Now that we've given proper introductions why don't we continue our battle already?" Kisame asked the Arrancar.

Tiraran nodded in reply before she smiled at Kisame as if she were still mocking him.

"If you want to keep fighting then I guess it would be really rude if I said no; don't complain, however, if I kill you," she said; Kisame had decided not to guess whether Tiraran was being serious or not with that "warning" as he already knew that the Numero could easily back it up.

As Kisame prepared himself for a continutation of this fight Itachi suddenly appeared before the battered shinobi.

"We have to go now, Kisame," Itachi said; it was obvious, however, that the Uchiha was already going to forcibly remove himself and his partner from the battle.

Tiraran was rather surprised by this and Itachi, using that small opportunity the Numero gave him, threw a couple of smoke bombs, which Itachi had placed timers on, at her; the timers had been activated a few minutes prior and, as a result, exploded the moment that the bombs rolled next to a confused Tiraran. Tiraran was soon enveloped by a large cloud of smoke which she was stuck in for a few minutes. By the time that the Arrancar managed to get out of the cloud Itachi and Kisame had both fled.

Before Tiraran could chase after the two missing-nins Jango appeared behind Tiraran.

"Damn; looks like I just missed it," he said, referring to Tiraran's battle.

"I guess these two are very quick on their feet," Tiraran said as she resealed her zanpakuto.

Though she tried to hide it Jango knew that something was on Tiraran's mind.

"You don't have to worry about Naruto-sama, Tiraran; you know that their chances of actually beating him are even less than those of them defeating either of us so he'll okay," Jango said as he saw that Tiraran was worried about their master's safety.

After seeing that Tiraran's expression lightned up a little Jango, honoring Naruto's orders, returned to Konoha along with his partner, just in case there were other members of the Akatsuki heading there...

Next Time – A Truth Confirmed: Reunion of the Uchiha Brothers

Translations:

Colmillo del Jaguar - Fang of the Jaguar

Dosel del Bosque - Forest Canopy


	21. 20 A Truth Confirmed

**Chapter 20 – A Truth Confirmed: Reunion of the Uchiha Brothers**

A/N: I have finished editing all of jmac615's (the original author of this story) 11 chapters; this is for those who've already read those chapters in case they wanted to take a look at them.

Please keep sending Faves, Follows, and Reviews

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Sasuke and Itachi's Location]

Recap:

"You can drop the act, Itachi; Naruto told me everything," Sasuke declared.

Itachi, though only reacting to this on the outside by raising an eyebrow, suddenly had a sinking feeling regarding the meaning of Sasuke's words take root in his gut.

"Everything? What do you mean by that, I wonder?" Itachi asked; though he still seemed unfazed by Sasuke's declaration he couldn't but wonder what the blonde-haired shinobi had told his brother...

_A Few Minutes Later..._

Itachi was shocked at what he had just heard even if the former Anbu captain's expression didn't change to show it. Apart from the moment before he killed his parents, where they told him that they would always be proud of him regardless of what he did, he had never been at such a loss for words.

Sasuke had been told the truth of what had happened... _all_ of it. Everything that Itachi had hoped to hide from his little brother, every secret that he had hoped would die with him was now firmly stored in Sasuke's young mind. The fact that it was Naruto of all people who had told Sasuke all of this made Itachi wonder where Minato's son had been for the past seven years and, of equal importance, what other secrets he might be aware of.

Itachi shook off these thoughts as he heard Sasuke question him.

"Is what Naruto said true, Itachi?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi didn't reply for few minutes as he was unsure of how he should respond to his little brother's question. As Itachi was still determined to have his clan redeemed with his own death he had to choose his words carefully since he also realized that lying to his brother would've been a pointless action.

While Itachi tried to consider what his response would be a very irritated Sasuke, quickly losing whatever patience he had up until that time, decided to snap Itachi out of his silence.

"If that's how you're going to be... then I'll just force an answer out of you," Sasuke said as he got into a fighting stance; the younger Uchiha had hoped that Itachi would give him an answer willingly but, knowing the chances of that happening were slim, was more than willing to fight his older brother if that was what it took.

Itachi raised an eyebrow at Sasuke's warning.

"You're going to force me to answer? Do you honestly believe that you could defeat me at your current level?" Itachi asked.

Despite appearing to be unmoved by what Sasuke just said the missing-nin realized there something was changing within Sasuke. What the young Uchiha said next would make the nature of the change much more apparent.

"Realistically... my chances aren't that good; I won't know for sure, however..." Sasuke said as he activated his MS.

"...until I take you on, Itachi," Sasuke said rather defiantly; Sasuke knew that he shouldn't be constantly using the MS but he also knew that fighting Itachi without would've been a fool's fight.

Itachi barely heard the last part of his brother's sentence as he was too focused on his brother's eyes... and for good reason.

"_The Mangekyō Sharingan? When did he activate that jutsu and, more importantly, how?_" Itachi thought to himself as he felt an upsurge in the surrounding atmospheric pressure which the Uchiha, as a wielder of the MS himself, recognized.

"_The Amaterasu... so he's already developing some skill with the Mangekyō; he's gotten much stronger. Is this perhaps because of something you said to him... Naruto Uzumaki?_" Itachi thought to himself as countered with his own Amaterasu.

The two waves of black flames collided with each other and, being the same jutsu and being of similar strength, the attacks basically smacked into each other and were unable to progress any further. After a few minutes of what was basically a match of willower as it was of jutsus, the black flames from both of the brother's Amaterasu dispersed as the nonstop use of the technique had taken it's toll on the two Uchihas. The eyes of both of them began to bleed as the harsh side effects caused by the overuse of the MS; Itachi was now heavily exhausted, though his earlier fight Jango meant that he was tired to begin with, while Sasuke had to place his hands on his eyes as he suffered a sudden pulse of excruciating pain that lasted for a few seconds.

Sasuke, not having drained as much of his chakra as his brother due to his recent acquisition of the dōjutsu, prepared to use the Amaterasu one more time once the pain subsided but stopped when he heard Itachi's voice.

"I guess I was wrong in not believing in you, Sasuke-nii," Itachi said, which confused the younger Uchiha.

"What are you talking about, Itachi?" Sasuke asked before he saw his older brother's expression change into something that the younger Uchiha hadn't seen before.

"I can no longer deny it; what Naruto has told you is the truth," Itachi said, finally answering Sasuke's first question.

The younger Uchiha, having finally gotten the confirmation he had been seeking, was now the one that stopped moving; he now stood there and didn't say anything for several minutes. Sasuke deactivated his MS before he finally spoke.

"Then why, Itachi... why did you lie to me? Why did you leave me alive? With all that I've gone through you might as well have just killed me," Sasuke said as he began crying.

Itachi suddenly had feelings guilt and sadness gnawing at his heart at the sight of his brothers tears; the missing-nin had expected his brother to be in great pain due to his actions but to see that pain with his own eyes was something that was almost too much for him to deal with.

The guilt the elder Uchiha felt from having forced Sasuke to go through so much pain was present in his eyes as he answered his brother's question

"There were a lot of reasons," Itachi said under his breath; Sasuke looked up at his older brother, his tears having stopped, as he continued to speak.

"For one thing you were just a little boy back then with no idea of what was happening around you so taking your life would've been a pointless death. More importantly... you're _my_ little brother; if I had killed you... I had too many burdens to carry back then and the burden that taking your life would have placed on me... would've been impossible for me to carry," Itachi said, stunning his brother.

"_Itachi..._" Sasuke thought to himself; before he could even finish that thought, however, Itachi continued his explanation.

"There is one more reason for why I didn't kill you, one that involves a promise that I made to someone very close to me. As Naruto told you I wanted to be judged for my crimes by another Uchiha so that our clan's name would be redeemed," Itachi said.

Sasuke didn't register that last part of his brother's explanation for a minute or so; when he finallly did comprehend those words, however, the young Sasuke clenched his fist in anger.

"You tried to do everthing by yourself even though there were people who could've helped you, including me. Why didn't you tell me all this from the start? Why couldn't you just trust me? I thought that you said we were brothers... so why did you go it alone?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi waited for a few seconds before he replied.

"I didn't want to put other people in danger needlessly and I thought that I could handle these things on my own. (he sighs) It's only now, after seeing how much you've grown, that I realize that I've made a terrible mistake in judgement. Maybe you're right about working with others; maybe if the both of us had worked together we could've saved our clan and village without a war breaking out. Just the same, however, you must understand the time for that has already passed; I can never return to Konoha now," Itachi said.

Itachi then walked towards Sasuke who, thinking that Itachi might try to do some sort of trick, got into a defensive stance; Itachi simply kept walking towards Sasuke until they were around 10 feet apart at which point he stopped walking. The two brothers just stood there, not a word spoken or a muscle moved; they simply locked eyes with each other as if they were trying to understand each other. After a few minutes Itachi finally ended the silence.

" I can understand if you've lost the desire to kill me, Sasuke... but I must ask that you still come for me when you've gotten strong enough," Itachi said as if it were a simple request.

Sasuke's response, after all the things that had learned, was not surprising in the least to his older brother.

"What makes you think that I'll still be able to go through with killing you now that I know the truth? Do you honestly believe that after learning what happened that I still want to seek my vengean-" Sasuke said before Itachi gotten closer to him and placed his hands on his brother's shoulders.

"I'm not asking you that you avenge anything now; I am asking that you please do this to redeem the Uchiha name as my. Promise me that you will honor my request, not as a fellow Uchiha... but as your older brother," Itachi asked his brother with a tone in his voice that showed that he was dead serious.

As Sasuke tried to make sense of what his brother was asking him he remembered what Naruto had told him about the things that Itachi had gone through just before the massacre.

"_When the rest of __your clan was preparing to perform a coup d'etat against Konoha Itachi was forced to make an impossible choice; he could either join his clan and potentially losing you, his precious brother, and his home to the war that he was sure would then engulf the Land of Fire or he could have your life spared and Konoha spared from the flames of war in exchange for the lives of rest of the Uchiha Clan. He had to weight you, Konoha, and the Uchiha on a set of scales and, in the end, he chose the first two. Itachi might have wanted to make himself the villian that had only killed his clan for the sake of power... but what he truly wanted was to make sure that no one else in Konoha had to suffer the horrors of war that he had experienced when he was a child._"

That was the last thing that Naruto had told Sasuke back then but it was only now that the full meaning of those words became clear to Sasuke; taking this revelation to heart he sighed before he finally responded to his brother's request as he knew he would truly regret what he was about to do.

"Alright then, Itachi; if that's what you really then I guess I have no choice but to do what you're asking of me when the time comes. You have to agree to do something for me, however, in exchange," Sasuke said as Itachi took his hands off the younger Uchiha's shoulders; the nod that Itachi then gave to Sasuke told him that he would listen to his request.

"I know that you're only pretending to go after Naruto right now; that said, however, the rest of that group you're in is still after him. You have to promise that no matter what happens you will not harm Naruto," he said.

The fact that Sasuke was only asking him to not harm a friend came as a surprise to Itachi as he was under the impression that Sasuke was still indifferent to the rest of the people of Konoha; since he had no intention of harming Naruto to begin with, however, what Sasuke was asking of was not that difficult to consent to.

After Itachi agreed to honor his brother request he bid him farewell before he left to find his partner Kisame, who was still fighting Tiraran at the time. As his brother got out of his sight Sasuke sighed.

"Now I understand what you were tried to tell... Naruto," Sasuke said to himself out loud before he went back to the village...

[Shukuba Town, 40 miles West of Konoha]

_Meanwhile..._

It had been a week since the Sandaime had told Naruto and Jiraiya of their mission; The "research" that Jiraiya was doing meant that the two didn't set off for their mission until a few of hours before Itachi and Kisame infiltrated Konoha, hence why they were still only a half-day's walk, for a shinobi at least, from Konoha.

Jiraiya could tell that his godson was feeling rather uneasy and was in deep thought since they left Konoha if the fact that the young chūnin hadn't said much of anything since that time was any indication of that. As the two shinobi went to find a place to stay for the night Jiraiya thought it would fun to mess with Naruto's worries.

"What are you, the guy who defeated Orochimaru, so worried about?," Jiraiya said to his godson with a smug tone; he was surprised when Naruto gave him a "what do you think, Shelock?" expression before he said anything.

"Let's see... the Old Man decides to suddenly retire because the situations with Orochimaru and the Shukaku made him think that he's no longer capable of being the Hokage. And since you refuse to take his place and he has to pick Tsunade who, among her many flaws, is a gambling addict with a bad temper, a fear of the sight of blood, despite being a medic-nin, and a belief that those who either were Hokage, dad included, or who want to become Hokage are all fools. I think that's more than enough to make me worry," Naruto replied bluntly, which caused a sweat drop appeared behind Jiraiya's head; it took a little while before the Sannin actually reacted to the cynical response.

Naruto's cynical views of the situation might have just been a result of the shock from hearing the Old Man decision to retire but he also had many good reasons for those views. In addition to the things that the young Uzumaki just stated there was the problem of whether or not the female Sannin would agree to take the position; considering her beliefs about the position there was a good chance that she would not be so willing to take the position.

"Tsunade's personality may be a bit different from the Hokages that came before her but she is more than capable of taking on the position; there is a reason why Sarutobi-sensei agreed to have her become Hokage," the Toad Sage said in an attempt to put his godson at ease.

Naruto only shook his head before he replied to his godfather's statement.

"I hope you and Old Man are right about this," Naruto muttered under his breath as he and Jiraiya entered a local inn that would use to rest for the night...

Next Time - Searching for the Slug Princess


	22. 21 Searching for the Slug Princess

**Chapter 21 - Searching for the Slug Princess**

A/N: I finally reached the 300 faves/follows mark with this story (I feel so accomplished :D); for those of you who haven't faved and/or followed this story, however, you still have to do it. Oh, and please keep sending reviews as well.

Please keep sending faves, follows, and reviews.

Disclaimer: Still applies

[Shukuba Town, Land of Fire]

_The Following Morning…_

Naruto, who went to bed a couple of hours after arriving with his godfather in the small town, woke up shortly before noon; despite the thoughts running through his mind during the night the young chunin managed to get a good night's sleep at the inn he and Jiraiya had stayed in for the night. Naruto got out of bed and, when he looked around the room, noticed that his old pervert of a godfather was not there.

"_Jiraiya-san's either asking around for Tsunade's location or he's probably being the old pevert that he always is,_" Naruto thought to himself as he headed to the bathroom.

After showering, getting dress, and downing a quick breakfast of two cups of instant ramen Naruto retrieved Kurama from his place on the side of the bed where the Uzumaki clansman had placed him the night before. After placing the Tailed Beast/zanpakuto in his usual position Naruto turned to face the door... but didn't walk towards it.

"_If those two actually thought that I wouldn't be able to detect them with all that chakra that they didn't suppress then I'm going to be very insulted,_" Naruto thought just before one of "those" two knocked on the door.

Naruto sighed at this.

"I know that the two of you behind that door are after me so quit trying to be "sneaky". I could sense your chakras from a mile away if I had to," Naruto said in his usual calm manner while still facing the door; the way the he mockingly emphasized the word sneaky in that first sentence underlied his irritation.

One of the two foes Naruto sensed, who was likely the one that knocked on the door, let a out a dark chuckle in response to Naruto's statement.

"It would seem that you derserve your reputation, jinchuri-" the man said before the door to the room the chunin was staying in flew off its hinges; it would've smacked the man in front of it had he not dodged it.

The man moved back down the hallway he was in and turned to look at his partner, one Itachi Uchiha, who had been watching the entire scene unfold and thinking of an excuse to get both himself his partner Kisame to retreat empty-handed.

Despite the fact that the Uchiha was not intending to capture the Uzumaki clansmen, even before his reunion with Sasuke, he still had to make it appear as if he actually tried to do so in order to avoid arousing the suspicions of his fellow Akatsuki members hence why he still went through with tracking down "his target".

Itachi turned to speak to Kisame.

"I warned you that we needed to be more careful, Kisame," Itachi told the former Kiri-nin rather bluntly.

"Yeah... I guess you're right, Itachi," Kisame said in reply as Naruto left the room and came into view.

Naruto turned to face his two would-be "captors", his hand firmly grasping the hilt of his blade in case Kisame made a move; while he knew that Itachi was not going to even try to seriously take him he still kept an eye, so to speak, on the former Anbu captain... just in case.

"Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha... so the Akatsuki sent the two of you, huh?" Naruto asked rhetorically while noting that Kisame's shark-like grin grew wider.

"So you're Naruto Uzumaki, eh? Small wonder that you killed both Orochimaru and Zabuza with that massive amount of power you have. It's too bad but you're going to have to come with us now," Kisame said as if it was an order.

Naruto simply raised his reiatsu slightly at the missing-nin's words.

"I'm sorry to disappoint but I have no intention of walking to my death; if you want me that badly..." Naruto said as a smirk formed on his face; this caused both Itachi and Kisame to enter into a defensive stance.

Neither of the two missing-nins had any idea what Naruto had in store for them.

"... you'll have to catch me and beat me first," Naruto said before he used his flash stepped out of the hallway, shocking both missing-nins, even though Itachi's expression didn't change, with his speed... after they realized that the Uzumaki had left, which was several seconds after he'd done so.

"_Such speed... it's even greater than that of his own father; so this is the power of Naruto Uzumaki,_" Itachi thought to himself.

Itachi's thought process was interrupted when he noticed that he still felt Naruto's energy which gave the impression that he was now somewhere on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, for the Akatsuki anyways, Kisame still sensed the Uzumaki as well... and immediately ran off to confront him before Itachi could try to stop him.

"_Damn it, Kisame; if you try to fight him alone I have a feeling that even you might not survive,_" Itachi thought to himself as he walked to where Naruto was as the endurance-challenged Uchiha had not fully recovered from his fights with Jango and Sasuke...

[Shukuba Town Outskirts]

_With Naruto..._

Naruto had stopped flash stepping when he got to a forest clearing not that far from the outer limits, though he was far enough to confront his pursuers without endangering the town. After a couple of minutes of waiting Kisame arrived and quickly unsheathed Samehada.

"Why'd you stop running all of a sudden?" Kisame asked.

Naruto unsheathed his zanpakuto before he answered.

"Isn't it obvious? I ran out of town so that I could kill you without risking the lives of the people in the town," Naruto replied.

"Well aren't we the confident one? Let's see if you can back up that little claim," Kisame stated as he back up until he reached a river next to the clearing.

Kisame then did a series of hand signs as he used the nearby water source to create a large shark-like entity.

"Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" Kisame roared as he sent the projectile flying by thrusting his hands forward.

Naruto simply gripped his blade with both of his hands before generating a familar crescent-shaped wave of reiryoku in his blade.

"Getsuga Tenshō!" Naruto roared as he swung his blade, releasing the attack.

The energy attack easily destroyed the water shark that Kisame had made and nearly hit the missing-nin who had to apply all of his speed, such as it was, to avoid getting injured.

Kisame was shocked at the strength of the attack; though it was obvious that Naruto was holding back a lot the former Kiri-nin could tell that the attack would've killed him if it had hit it's mark.

"How did you learn to use an attack like that?" Kisame asked his opponent; this caused Naruto to have another flashback...

_**Flashback**_

[Szayelaporro Granz's Lab, Las Noches]

_Three Years Before Naruto's Return..._

(A/N: For the many readers who've questioned why I gave Naruto the Getsuga Tensho [even though he first used it in Chapter 6 which means that it was Jmac615's, otherwise known as the original author of the story, idea] this flashback is for you)

"Let's see if this works; please try it now, Naruto," Szayelaporro commanded after he gave the young boy his blade back.

"Ok, Granz-sama," Naruto said though he was skeptical of what the master inventor of the Espada truly had in mind.

The pink-haired 8th Espada had told the young Uzumaki that he had infused his zanpakuto, or at least the weapon part of it, with a special shard that would grant him a new attack once he infused it with said zanpakuto; though Naruto did not really trust the creepy scientist he decided it was best to go along with what his teacher, or at least this teacher, was doing.

To that end Naruto began building up his reiryoku; after he built up enough of his energy Naruto, as per the Espada's instructions, grabbed his sword with both his hands and channeled the energy into the blade. He was amazed by what happened next.

A massive crescent wave of his own orange reiryoku suddenly formed from the built-up reiryoku in his blade, shocking the young boy and causing a smirk to form on Szayelapporo's face.

"Before you use that attack please take note of its name," Granz said; Naruto nodded before he told the ninja the name of the attack, Getsuga Tenshō.

"Now then, young Naruto, please swing the blade at that target right there," the Espada said as he pointed to a part of the wall with a target painted on it.

"Right! (Naruto takes a deep breath) Getsuga Tenshō!" Naruto roared as he swung his blade causing him to launch the wave of energy... and destroying the entire wall in the destruction.

Despite the damage to his lab, or perhaps because of it, Szayelaporro's smirk grew even larger.

"I declare this experiment... a success!" Granz declared before dismissing Naruto, but not before he reminded him to keep practicing with that technique.

As Naruto flash stepped out of Szayelaporro's lab the Espada began thinking about where he had gotten the shard.

"_I wonder if Aizen-sama has anymore of these shards from this 'Engetsu' he referred to..._" the Arrancar thought to himself as he focused on a different experiment...

(A/N: Engetsu is the name of Isshin Kurosaki's zanpakuto; since Isshin could also use the Getsuga I added this bit to explain how Naruto aquired the technique)

**_End Flashback_**

[Shukuba Town Outskirts]

_Current Time..._

_"_This attack was a gift given to me by one of my teachers and it's actually one of the special attacks I use the most. That's enough about the Getsuga, though, as it's time I finish you off; with this next attack your life will come to an end," Naruto said before he moved a few feet back from Kisame as he held up his left hand in front of him while he still gripped Kurama with his right hand.

Kisame finally decided to unsheathe Samehada as he prepared for Naruto's attack; the missing-nin was surprised, therefore, when Naruto sheathed his blade... and began chanting.

"The turbid crest begins to blur! An insolent vessel of madness! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker! Disrupt sleep! Crawling queen of iron! Eternally self-destructing doll of mud! Unite! Repulse! Fill with soil and know your own impotence!" Naruto said; this weird incantation, not surprisingly, confused Kisame.

"_What the hell is this gaki doing?_" Kisame thought to himself.

By the time Kisame realized that he should probably do something other than stand... it was too late.

"Hado # 90. Kurohitsugi," Naruto said as a ball of black reiryoku formed in his left hand, all while the sky began to darken.

When that ball dispersed the black energy then began to expand and take shape until Naruto had created multiple boxes of this energy, each of them topped off with spears shaped in the form of crosses. These then continued to multiply until there were hundreds of these boxes. Before Kisame could even respond. to the shocking sight around him the boxes suddenly fell upon him, merging with each other until the hundreds of boxes became one giant box with hundreds of cross-shaped spears surrounding the box. The spears then pierced the box simultaneously... with Kisame inside said box; the gurgled cries of pain coming from inside the giant box made it clear that Kisame was hit by the spears.

"Goodbye," was the only thing Naruto said as he calmly turned away from the box... just as it began to dissipate.

When the black box completely vanished Kisame, or at least his now lifeless form, could now be seen alongside an apparently grieving Samehada; the body of the former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist looked like a piece blue-colored Swiss cheese as the black reiryoku spears had pierced right through the shinobi in at least 20 different places which left no doubt of the missing-nin's demise.

Naruto walked to a nearby tree on whose branches sat a familiar white-haired, perverted godfather of his. Jiraiya looked at the scene in front of him in shock for a few minutes before he finally turned his attention to Naruto.

"Don't you think you went a little overboard with that attack, Naruto?" Jiraiya asked his godson... who simply smirked at the Sannin's comment.

"At least I wasn't fooled by a genjutsu-induced woman like you were," Naruto replied, causing the self-proclaimed super pervert to look away in humiliation for a few minutes before he remembered something important.

"Wait a minute, Naruto; what are you going to do about the dead body that's lying..." Jiraiya said before his voice trailed off.

He was looking at the spot where Kisame's body was and saw none other than Itachi carrying the body of the deceased missing-nin on his shoulders. Jiraiya was about to confront the Uchiha before Naruto intervened.

"Leave him be, Jiraiya-san; he won't be coming back for a while. Besides, we still have have to find Tsunade," Naruto said, getting a nod from his godfather.

As both Konoha shinobi headed back towards the town where they were staying Naruto turned his head to look at the area where the Akatsuki were.

"_I guess our meeting will have to wait for another time,_" Naruto thought to himself before he and Jiraiya head back into town...

[Tanzaku Town, 90 miles West of Konoha]

_One Week Later..._

Naruto and Jiraiya, after several delays due to the latter's "research", arrived in the popular tourist town; Naruto was surprised, and rather irritated, by the big festival that was going on around him. The fact that the town Naruto was currently in had a reputation due to it's more "adult" amenities only caused the Uzumaki clansmen to question his godfather's motives for coming here; the only thing that kept Naruto from grabbing Jiraiya by his red haori and dragging him out of town was the fact that the Toad Sannin was somehow not getting "sidetracked" by the many women all around them which proved to Naruto, for now at least, that his godfather was focused on something other than his "research".

"Are you sure that she's here?" Naruto asked.

"The people back in the previous town mentioned seeing a woman matching her description in this town; with all the casinos here it's very likely that she's still somewhere in town," Jiraiya reasoned.

Naruto sighed at this; as he had suspected the female Sannin was spotted in a gambling town thought the blinding lights of the casinos had already sent alarm bells ringing in his mind.

"Anyways, we should start looking for Tsunade; assuming that she hasn't already left town she shouldn't be to hard to find," Jiraiya said to which Naruto nodded in agreement.

They soon began searching every casino in Tanzaku Town...

_Late in the Evening..._

...only to come up empty-handed, much to the frustration of both ninjas.

Naruto was especially annoyed with the lack of progress and secretly prayed that Tsunade would be cooperative... for her own sake.

"We should look for an inn to stay in for the night, Naruto," Jiraiya told his blond-haired godson.

Naruto sighed at this as he and the white-haired Sannin walked through the town's main street and into the western end of town; both shinobi had spent most of the day searching the east side of Tanzaku Town where the majority of the gambling dens were located.

"Fine, then. Let's find one quickly, though, as I'm no mood to deal with your per-" Naruto said before he stopped dead in his tracks.

Jiraiya turned to look at his godson.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Jiraiya asked to which Naruto held up his hand.

"_This chakra... could it be?_" Naruto thought to himself as he felt a strong chakra signature.

In order to get a clearer idea of what he was sensing Naruto got on one knee before placing two of his fingers to the ground, much to Jiraiya's confusion.

"Pesquisa," Naruto said softly before a massive radiating pulse through the ground.

Among the many skills, whether hollow or shinigami, he learned at Las Noches the young chunin showed an unusually great affinity towards the sensing ability of the Arrancars. Naruto's skill with the Pesquisa was so great, in fact, that he developed his own unique variant which not only increased the range and accuracy of his sensory pulses but it even allowed him to detect certain things with this ability that even the Espada couldn't, such as a person's physical condition or even a person's next move before they even did it, much like a Sharingan; he usually didn't use the Pesquisa, however, as he had to stay absolutely still in order for it to work.

The unique version of the Pesquisa that Naruto created was the same version that he was now using. After gauging the chakra signature with greater scrutiny the young chunin suddenly smirked at what he felt.

"Jiraiya-san... I think I finally found her..." Naruto said, taking the Sannin by surprise with his claim...

Next Time - The Title of Hokage: Naruto vs. Tsunade


	23. 22 The Title of Hokage

**Chapter 22 – The Title of Hokage: Naruto vs. Tsunade**

Please keep sending faves, follows, and reviews.

Disclaimer: Still Applies

[Unspecified Pub, Tanzaku Town]

_Current Time..._

Naruto and Jiraiya entered the small bar where Naruto had detected the large chakra signature and were immediately drawn to the faces of two of the patrons. Jiraiya was relieved to see that Naruto's senses had been right on the money.

"Hey, Tsunade!" Jiraiya greeted happily; Naruto, on the other hand, simply narrowed his eyes for a brief moment at the sight of the future Fifth Hokage. The sight was not encouraging in the least to the young chunin.

Appearance-wise the female Sannin appeared to be in her twenties to those who didn't know her; she was fairly tall, had light-colored skin, brown eyes, waist-length blonde hair that she had tied into two loose ponytails, a very large bust, and had a violet rhombus mark on her forehead that Naruto realized was a gathering point for some sort of massive chakra reserve. She wore a grey and sleeveless kimono-style blouse that was held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matches her pants and open-toed sandals with high heels as well as a necklace with green crystal around her neck.

Tsunade's appearance aside, Naruto was more concerned that she looked like she was sulking... and drinking sake like there was no tomorrow.

"_She's the one they chose to replace the Old Man? We're so screwed,_" Naruto thought to himself in dismay before he heard the "Slug Princess" acknowledge them.

"Jiraiya... why are you in a place like this?" Tsunade asked her fellow Sannin as she quickly tried to sober up.

"We were actually looking for you, Tsunade," Jiraiya said in response as he and Naruto took a seat with Tsunade and another women who sat next to the renowned medic ninja; she had fair skin, black hair and eyes, wore long blueish-black kimono with white trimmings that was held closed by a white obi, and open-toed sandals similar to Tsunade's except the heels were much lower. The woman also was holding a sleeping piglet in her arms though Naruto decided to ignore it.

Naruto guessed that she was most likely either Tsunade's apprentice or assistant.

"And why'd you come looking for me, Jiraiya? And who on earth is the kid next to you?" Tsunade asked; she figured, incorrectly, that her fellow Sannin was just there to talk about Orochimaru's death and therefore she didn't understand why he had a kid with him.

Jiraiya's expression had turned serious by this time; the Toad Sage decided to first answer her second question.

"He's-" Jiraiya began until, to his surprise, Naruto cut him off.

"Just a young chunin who was asked to go along with Jiraiya-san," Naruto said; after a few seconds Jiraiya managed to figure out why Naruto refused to reveal his identity yet.

Naruto did not want to reveal his identity to Tsunade just yet since he did kill Orochimaru who was one of her former teammates; even if that teammate had gone rogue which would have probably put him on bad terms with both of his fellow Sannin there was still no telling how Tsunade right respond if she found out that her teammate's killer was sitting across the table from her.

"I see... but that still doesn't explain why you two have come looking for me," Tsunade pointed out.

Jiraiya let out a sigh before he finally let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.

"To be honest... we're here because the Sandaime has retired again. Sandaime and both of the councils have requested that you take his place and become the Godaime Hoakge," he said, causing the eyes of both Tsunade and the other women to widen in shock.

The woman with Tsunade was the first to respond to this news.

"Wait a minute, Jiraiya-sama... why would the Sandaime retire like this all of a sudden!?" the women asked in shock.

"Let's just say that Sarutobi-sensei was shaken up by recent events, Shizune," Jiraiya vaguely explained to now named Shizune before he turned his attention back to Tsunade.

"Well, Tsunade; what's your decision?" Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade lowered her head down as she appeared to be deep in thought; after several minutes of silence Tsunade finally gave her answer.

"Never in a thousand years would I do it... I refuse," Tsunade said bluntly.

Jiraiya sighed at his former teammate's refusal while Naruto narrowed his eyes at her; the Konoha chunin had a very good idea about what Tsunade was about to say next.

"All those who became Hokage gambled with their lives and all but Sarutobi-sensei ended up giving up said lives for the the sake of peace. Only a fool would want to become Hokage much less actually becoming one; that includes my Grandfather, Tobirama, and especially old your student Min-" Tsunade said before she stopped mid-sentence.

The reason: Naruto, who took offense to Tsunade insulting the previous Hokages that included his own dad, unsheated his sword and had it pointing towards the Sannin's throat; it was only separated by millimeters which got everyone's attention... once they realized what had happened, of course.

"I don't care if you're the one that the old man chose you to become the new Hokage; try to finish that sentence and it'll be the last thing that you ever do," Naruto said even though it was a bluff; even though he had no intention of killing Tsunade he would not let her insult his dad and the others.

Since Tsunade had no intention of going to Konoha as Jiraiya had hoped Naruto decided to persuade her to change her mind... his own way.

The young Uzumaki removed his sword from its place near the now terrified Tsunade's neck, much to relief of both Shizune and Jiraiya.

"Let's go Jiraiya-san; she's not worth the trouble," Naruto said as he left the table; he walked towards the exit before he stopped halfway to the opening.

"You know something, Tsunade? Somewhere in the afterlife I'm sure that your brother and boyfriend are watching you reduce yourself to this pitiful state your in now. The founder of the modern-day system of medical ninja running from her past, living her days as a hopeless druken gambler? Nawaki is probably feeling ashamed that he ever called you his sister... and Dan probably feels the same way for ever having any feelings for you," Naruto said as he turned to face the threesome behind him.

Jiraiya and Shizune were the first to register what Naruto had just said and, when they did, they eyes widened in a comically horrified expression.

"_Please tell me he didn't just say what I think he said?_" Jiraiya thought as he was well aware that his godson just entered forbidden territory, metaphorically speaking.

"_Is he insane?! Tsunade's gonna kill him!_" Shizune thought to herself, unaware of who the boy was.

As for the Slug Sannin her face suddenly turned red in pure rage at what Naruto had just said once it registered to her and it was clear to everyone in the pub that they should now get out of dodge immediately. Tsunade finally spoke when the last patrons left the little bar.

"Take that back, you little gaki," the female Sannin hissed.

Naruto simply smirked before he picked up a plate of five dumplings from another table; he then grabbed one of the round dumplings and tossed it at Tsunade's forehead as he spoke.

"Over. My. Cold. Dead. Body," the Uzumaki/Namikaze said while tossing a dumpling at the Slug Princess, as many people called Tsunade, with each word he said.

Before the fifth dumpling could reach Tsunade, however, she plucked it from the air with her right hand which she then closed into a fist; the Sannin, in her rage, then slammed her fist into the table smashing it to bits, much to the terror of both Shizune and Jiraiya.

Naruto, on the other hand, smirked at Tsunade's reaction.

"_As I thought; I knew that this would happen,_" Naruto thought to himself.

In truth Naruto didn't really mean what he had said; he did, however, have a very good reason to provoke Tsunade though it was a reason that only the young Chunin could've thought of.

Tsunade looked at Naruto with face that would've made anyone else quake in terror.

"You and me, gaki. Outside. Right now," Tsunade snarled; Naruto's smirk only grew wider at her challenge.

"Ladies first," Naruto said in a mocking tone; as if to further insult Tsunade by making an air quote with his left hand around the word 'ladies'.

As Tsunade stormed out of the bar Shizune's eyes once again widened in comical terror.

"Is that kid looking for death or something?!" Shizune yelled out as Naruto walked out behind his next opponent. Jiraiya simply sighed at Shizune's words.

"Not exactly, Shizune; if anything Tsunade is the one whose made a mistake... for picking a fight with Naruto," Jiraiya said; Shizune looked at Jiraiya in shock at finally learning the name of the young chunin.

"Naruto... You mean as in Naruto Uzumaki? The same Naruto who killed Orochimaru?" Shizune asked to which Jiraiya nodded in response as he and Shizune left the damaged pub.

"Let's just see what happens; I'm sure he has something in mind," Jiraiya reasoned.

When the two shinobi passed the exit they came upon a scene that practically screamed tension.

Naruto and Tsunade faced each other and on the main street of Tanzaku Town seperated by 50 feet; the people nearby, thankfully, had enough common sense to get out of the immediate area which meant there were less inhibitions on both combatants.

"Now that we're about to fight how about you finally tell me your name, gaki?" Tsunade said before Naruto placed his zanpakuto next to Jiraiya and asked him to keep a close eye on it; due to his mission Naruto couldn't risk using his sword in this fight... not that it made much of a difference.

"Since you'll probably want to know my name after this fight I guess I should give you my name before I fight you. (he points his right thumb at his headband) I am Naruto Uzumaki... Chunin of Konohagakure and the guy who's going to defeat you," Naruto declared. Like her assistant Tsunade's eyes widened in shock at the mention of that name.

"So you're the kid who defeated Orochimaru; if that's the case then I guess I can't hold back against the likes of you," Tsunade said as she got into her fighting stance.

"Heh... then stop your yapping and let's do this already," Naruto said as he got into his fighting stance.

Tsunade made the first move, charging at Naruto and throwing a punch with her right hand. Naruto, to Tsunade and Shizune's absolute shock, simply caught her fist with his bare left hand; if that weren't enough to surprise both kunoichis the young Uzumaki clansman didn't appear to be so much as even fazed by the attack.

"_That's impossible; that punch should've_ _crushed every bone in his arm with that punch and yet he doesn't it even appear as if he was affected by that punch. Who is he? What is he?_" Tsunade thought to herself.

Naruto simply smirked at Tsunade's reaction.

"It's my turn, Tsunade," Naruto taunted before he made his move.

Using Tsunade's arm as leverage Naruto lifted his body into the air where he proceeded to smack Tsunade in the face with a roundhouse kick. The Sannin was sent flying by this strike and by the time she had regained her footing she had been knocked back 100 feet.

"_Such strength; I should've guesssed that his skills with taijutsu would be great,_" Tsunade thought to herself before she questioned Naruto on his prowess.

"Where did you learn to fight like that, gaki?" Tsunade asked him.

Naruto was soon having another flashback...

**_ Flashback_**

[Unspecified Location, Hueco Mundo]

_Four Years Before Naruto's Return..._

Naruto stood in the middle of the massive desert outside of Las Noches preparing to spar, yet again, with Grimmjow who was probably the Espada Naruto spent most of his time with; compared to most of his training regimens this one, which was how Naruto trained to master his skills in Hakuda (hand-to-hand combat), was on a weekly basis throughout his entire time at Las Noches.

Naruto got into his fighting stance which got him a smirk from the blue-haired Arrancar.

"Your move, Naruto," Grimmjow said.

"If say so, Grimmjow-sama," Naruto said as he charged and threw a left jab at the former Adjuchas.

Grimmjow simply sidestepped the attack and tried kick the young Uzumaki in the face. Relying on his instincts Naruto jumped over kick and proceeded to smack Grimmjow with a kick of his own. This move caught the Espada by surprise and he proved unable to dodge it in time; Naruto's foot smacked Grimmjow in his left cheek and sent him back several feet.

Grimmjow, despite getting battered and bruised, simplywidened his smirk.

"Looks like you finally got me that time; you've certainly come a long way, Naruto. Now let's try this again," Grimmjow said.

"Yes Grimmjow-sama, sir," Naruto said as he and Grimmjow continued their practice session...

**_End Flashback_**

"My teachers made sure that I could defeat any opponent I faced even if I found myself unarmed or, in this case, if I find myself unable to use anything other than hand-to-hand combat. Now unless you have anymore questions let us continue this fight," Naruto said.

Tsunade responded by charging towards Naruto before she tried to hit the young Uzumaki with a left roundhouse kick. As Naruto proceeded to easily sidestep the kick Jiraiya, who was watching the "fight" unfold alongside Shizune and the piglet, had one thought running through his head.

"_Note to self: never piss off my godson; if I do I have a feeling I might end up like Tsunade,_" Jiraiya mused as he watched the fight in amazement...

Next Time - Fools


	24. 23 Fools

**Chapter 23 – Fools**

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[Tanzaku Town, Land of Fire]

_Current Time..._

The fight between Naruto and Tsunade, if anyone could call it a fight, had been going on for 5 minutes now and, to the surprise of everyone minus Jiraiya who was also witnessing the battle, Tsunade was clearly getting the worst of it. The medic-nin had been so badly beat up that she looked as though _she_ needed a medic while Naruto, who didn't even appear to be fazed in the least by this "fight", decided to irritate Tsunade even further by pulling out a copy of Jiraiya's first novel, _Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi_, and proceeded to read it it while fighting the Slug Sannin not unlike what Kakashi did when the the leader of Team 7 first fought the then genin of Konohagakure (though Naruto's book was obviously not pornographic in it's nature like the books that his jonin squad leader read).

Tsunade obviously didn't take too kindly to Naruto's sudden lack of focus during their fight and she made it very clear to the Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman.

"Stop reading that damn and focus on the fight, damn it!" Tsunade hissed as she charged at Naruto.

As Naruto sidestepped to the right of the oncoming left punch the young chunin sighed at this attempt at another futile frontal attack.

"If I can beat the crap out of you while reading a book why should I focus only on this sorry excuse for a fight?" Naruto asked in a rhetorical and mocking manner.

Before Tsunade could respond to this retort the young Konoha-nin used the opening created by his evasion of the Sannin's jab to drive a a left roundhouse kick into her stomach; though Naruto held back most of his strength in this kick, as he had done with most of his attacks since he returned to the Shinobi World, it still sent Tsunade flying back at least 200 yards before she ended up on the ground face first with a few of her ribs cracked.

As the female Sannin struggled to get back on her feet Naruto snapped the book he was reading shut as he turned to face Tsunade.

"Are you done yet?" the young chunin asked; the Slug Sannin, not to anyone's surprise, refused to even consider giving up.

"This fight is not over yet, you little gaki," Tsunade said bluntly as she was determined to make the young shinobi regret his words back at the pub.

Despite Tsunade's determination, however, the reality of the situation was that the Sannin had no real chance of winning this fight. Even if Tsunade had been in her best condition, which she was not due to druken rage that she had fallen into before this "fight" started, her opponent would've still been defeated her with almost no difficulty due the massive difference in their powers. After all, if even Orochimaru was defeated in battle by Naruto without the boy receiveing so much as a scratch as a result of that fight how would either Jiraiya or Tsunade, who were supposedly on a equal level to the fallen missing-nin, be able to fair any better than their teammate?

Naruto was aware of this and, in fact, he could have ended this "fight" before Tsunade realized what had happened to her (without killing her, of course) even with the restrictions placed on him by the requirements of the mission as well as those he placed on himself. There was a reason that the chunin allowed his fight to drag on, however, and he decided that it was about time to reveal that reason as he sidestepped one of Tsunade's kicks.

"You know something, Tsunade? I've gotten sick of this 'fight' since you can barely do anything. So why don't I wrap things up right now?" Naruto asked as though it were a challenge.

Before Tsunade could even respond to his challenge Naruto used a palm strike to push Tsunade away several feet.

"_Now_ _it's_ _time to see how she'll respond to this; if she can't deal with it then we'll have to find someone else to take the Old Man's place,_" Naruto thought to himself as he brought his left thumb closer to his mouth.

Naruto's movement, along with his expression, caused Jiraiya to raise an eyebrow at the chunin until his eyes widened at the realization of what his godson was doing.

"_Now I get... this is a test Naruto had made for Tsunade. What he's doing is little harsh but I'm guessing that was the idea; there's a great risk with what he's doing but, then again, there's a risk to everything when it comes to Tsunade. Minato... you really did make the right choice in placing your faith in Naruto. I just hope he doesn't get too carried away,_" Jiraiya thought to himself, having learned a lot about his godson in the time they spent together including a bit of how his godson's mind worked, as he noticed that Naruto bit his thumb.

The bite wasn't that hard but Naruto made sure that it was enough to draw blood and, when he saw that the bite mark was indeed bleeding (not much, of course, but enough that it was noticable), he placed that hand in front of him in an out stretched position; he had the open palm of his bleeding hand aimed at Tsunade in a position that guaranteed that the Sannin would clearly see that blood.

"Now then, Tsunade; should I use my blood-enhanced attack right now or should I wait for you to attack me first?" Naruto asked in a mocking tone as he made sure that Tsunade clearly heard the word blood when he spoke.

Despite the rhetorical tones of that question Naruto was expecting a response, whatever it might turn out to be, from Tsunade. After a few minutes of silence Tsunade registered what she saw and heard. What happened next took both Jiraiya and Shizune, the latter of whom was about to call Naruto various "unpleasant" names when he appeared to be attempting to use Tsunade's fear of blood against her just to gain an edge, by surprise.

The young Konoha-nin smirked when he saw that Tsunade clenched her fist in before fixing her eyes, which were full of rage, on Naruto rather than the bloody palm.

"I am going to kill you, Uzumaki," Tsunade hissed very slowly before mustering all the strength she had left and began to charge at Naruto.

Before she could even take two steps, however, she suddenly felt someone grabbing her left arm at the wrist and holding it out to her side which stopped the Slug Sannin in her tracks. Tsunade turned to face the one who was restraining and was taken aback to find that Naruto had gotten behind her without her even noticing. Tsunade turned to see the spot where "Naruto" was before just in time to see that "Naruto" disappear instantaneously. Tsunade could not help but be amazed at what she just saw, though she refused to show it, and immediately realized what had happened.

"_He's fast enough to create an afterimage? The speed he has is unreal; he might be even faster than Minato,_" Tsunade thought as Naruto spoke to her in a calm, almost playful manner even as he was still holding her arm.

"I think that's enough of that, Tsunade," the young ninja said as he released his grip on Tsuande's arm.

Naruto waited until Tsunade turned to face him before he continued speaking.

"Do you just realized what you did just now, Tsunade?" Naruto asked; this question confused the female Sannin greatly.

"What are talking about, gaki? All I tried to do was to charge at you for another attack before you used whatever technique that you planned to do with that blood stained hand..." Tsunade said before her voice trailed off; her eyes widened at the realization of what Naruto was talking about and what he had done.

Shizune as she looked on at the young chunin also realized what had just happened.

"_I see... Naruto-san was trying to find out if Tsunade-sama could get past her fear of blood by provoking her to the point that the only thing she should feel was rage. Those insults on her, Nawaki, and Sato-san were nothing more than a means to get her as angry as possible while his actions in this fight were meant to anger her even further before he drew his own blood; by insulting the memories of those she cared about most he wanted to see if Tsunade could fight on even when she saw the object of her greatest fears. I'm certain that part of the reason was to see if she was truly worthy of being the Hokage; however..._" Shizune thought to herself as she turned her attention to her master.

"_...Tsunade-sama made her point very clear when she said that she refused the offer to become Hokage; Naruto-san is aware of this and yet he went to all this trouble to test Tsunade like this. Is there another reason he did this?_" Shizune mused; unbeknownst to Shizune she was about to get her answer when Naruto turned to speak with Tsunade.

"Back in that bar where we found you and Shizune-san you said that those who dream of becoming Hokage are fools, correct?" Naruto asked, though he already knew the answer to that question, to which Tsunade simply nodded as she was still simmering from all that the Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman had said during their fight.

"If by fool you meant someone who takes dangerous, even life-threatening, risks for the sake of their dreams, which we both know is what you meant, then let me ask you something; don't you think that's the type of person who has to be Hokage?" Naruto asked, stunning Tsunade, Shizune, and even Jiraiya, as Naruto continued with his little lecture.

"Last time I checked the Hokage is someone who must lead for the village, through times of peace and times of conflict, and must be willing to give everything, even his or her life to protect the village; do you honestly think that someone who wasn't a fool should be the one to be Hokage when they only care about themselves? Do you think that selfish cowards like Danzo should be allowed to became Hokage? Kami knows what would happen to Konoha if he was put in charge. Those type of people are the ones who rather would take an entire orphange hostage in order to live rather than fight an enemy to the death to protect the village and are the last type of people who would do what was best for the village," Naruto said while referring to the member of the civilian council who was the "former" leader of the now "disbanded" ROOT Division within Konoha's Anbu Black Ops and was known as the "Darkness of the Shinobi."

Naruto had not spoken with Danzo personally but he knew enough about him to know that the Shimura clansman was trouble and was not afraid to make his distrust of the village elder known to everyone (including Danzo himself, albeit indirectly, during one of Naruto's recent confrontations with the civilian council). The young chunin knew that Danzo was afraid of dying which was the main reason why Naruto brought him up in the little lecture he was giving Tsunade so she could understand his final point.

"Those qualities of selflessness and a willingness to sacrifice everything for what you care about are the reasons why someone like my dad and your grandfather were chosen to become Hokage. So yes, you could say that people like me are fools for having that dream; the way I see it, however, it takes a fool to be a strong Hokage... just like how it took a fool to help you past your of your fear of blood. While Jiraiya-san and I wait for you to change your mind think about what I've said... before you decide to badmouth the Hokages," Naruto said before he finally left, without saying another word, the area to head to the hotel Jiraiya had checked into before he and Naruto had begun their search for Tsunade.

As Tsunade thought about what had just happened the Sannin finally fell her to her knees as a result of her injuries and exhaustion, causing a concerned Shizune to run over and began to heal her master's wounds. Jiraiya walked up to his former teammate who did not fail to notice her fellow Sannin's smug look if her glare was a sign of anything.

"Not... a... word... Jiraiya; unless, of course, you want to relive what happened to you when I caught you peeping on me in the bath houses," Tsunade warned, causing a sweat drop to form on the back of Jiraiya's head.

When Jiraiya didn't say anything in response Tsunade sighed before she continued.

"He's a lot like his dad Minato, isn't he? I guess your old student made the right choice in sealing the Kyubi in him after all," Tsunade said to her fellow Sannin.

"It appear so... though I'm still at a lost as to how he has grown this much; whoever his teachers were they certainly knew what they were doing," Jiraiya said, still wondering who it was that had trained his godson.

Jiraiya almost didn't hear Tsunade's next words.

"I know I'm going to regret this later on... but I guess Naruto has a point. (she sighs) Tell me where to meet up with you tomorrow; I'll accept the council's offer to become Hokage. Oh, and give this to Naruto now when you get back to your hotel," Tsunade said as she reached for an item that caused the eyes of both Shizune and Jiraiya to widen in shock.

[Akatsuki Hideout, Unspecified Location]

_Meanwhile..._

The large cavernous hideout was currently occupied by only one flesh-and-blood member of the fearsome criminal organization that owned it: Itachi Uchiha who, after reporting what had happened during his "failed" mission to "capture" Naruto, was now in a meeting with his fellow Akatsuki members who appeared in the form of holograms.

One of these holograms, that of a man whose most unusual feature were the purple eyes with a rings that spread out from the pupil, belonged to the man known as Pein, the recognized leader of the Akatsuki. As the leader of the criminal organization listened to the Uchiha's repoer he could not believe what what he was hearing; though his expression didn't show it from what could be seen of him in his holographic form his voice expressed that disbelief just as well.

"Are you seriously telling us that a 13-year old boy, albeit one who's the Kyubi's jinchuriki, was able to defeat Kisame, take his Samehada without so much as getting a scratch, and that he did all of this with only one attack?" Pein asked.

Itachi nodded in response to the man's question; he had made a point to try to retrieve Kisame's blade after he had left the former Kiri-nin's body with Zetsu but, when got to the spot where Kisame died, he discovered that Naruto and Jiraiya were already sealing the sword into a scroll to take it with them.

"Yes, Leader-sama, although it's hard to believe the jinchuriki was able to effortlessly defeat Kisame; from the little that I saw of his skills he's probably more powerful than all of us... put together," Itachi said, shocking everyone with that claim.

The fact that Kisame lost to the young Konoha-nin was shocking enough but for Itachi, of all people, to make such a claim was enough to make everyone's hearts (all 12 hearts when one counts the four extra hearts that Kakuzu had) grow cold if they hadn't already lost their warmth. Unbeknownst to everyone else Itachi was actually relieved to see that his fellow Akatsuki members were a bit unnerved by what they had just learned since that would inevitably lead to the postponement of the group's hunt for the jinchuriki. No one in the group had anticipated that they would have to deal with such a strong foe which meant that plans would have to be changed and methods of capture would have to be adapted to capture Naruto, all of which took time.

Itachi got out of his thoughts when he heard Pein speak.

"We have lost one of our first and most loyal members; the loss of Kisame is a great blow to the Akatsuki and is something that cannot be overlooked. We will have to delay our plans for the capture of the other Tailed Beast; we'll also have to find a new member to take Kisame's place," Pein said.

Itachi, though he didn't look interested in what was being said, was suddenly dreading what was about to happen. There was only one person at this time that the leader of Akatsuki would want to have for Kisame's replacement and the former ANBU Black Ops Captain knew how unlikely the chances of recruiting **her **actually are. Just finding her would be a next to impossible task and, even if the Akatsuki did locate her, convincing her to join a group that was potentially hostile to her village would be an even more impossible task than tracking her down. After all, even though she was a missing-nin it wasn't something she lived with by choice and, despite being on the run for almost 13 years she would probably rather die a shinobi of Konoha than live to become an enemy of the village...

Next Time – The New Arc: The Lost Uchiha

**IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS STORY (READ THIS... OR ELSE):**

As I'm sure many of you readers are aware Sasuke is not going to be an evil bastard in this story and, as a result of this, there will be no Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Since there will be a timeskip, however, there will be an arc that will replace the aforementioned arc in order to make the idea of a timeskip (yes there will be a timeskip) more believable (all things considered) which ties in to the Uchiha OC that was the focus of a poll that I made a while back (yes the voters choose to give the OC a chance and, yes, she's the only other OC in this story besides Tiraran and Jango). This is a warning for those who were either unaware of the poll regarding the OC, wanted to know what I planned to do after the Search for Tsunade Arc, and for those who might question the idea of either a new arc, OC (who will only play a moderate to minor role in this story beyond this new arc), or both.


	25. 24 The New Arc: The Lost Uchiha

**Chapter 24 – The New Arc: The Lost Uchiha**

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Disclaimer: Still Applies

[Main Gate, Konohagakure]

_One Week Later…_

Naruto was waiting for the rest of Team 7 at the entrance for their next mission; as he awaited the rest of his team he took a moment to glance at the latest addition to his wardrobe: a necklace with a green gem attached to it that was apparently once owned by the Shodaime Hokage. He was rather surprised when Jiraiya gave it to him a week and even more shocked when he found out that Tsunade, who was the owner of said necklace, was giving it to him as a gift. As it was a heirloom from the Shodaime, however, Naruto was more than happy to accept the Sannin's gift.

Naruto got out of his train of thought when he saw that Sakura had arrived.

"Hey, Naruto-kun, where were you and Sasuke-kun yesterday? You guys weren't at the ceremony for Tsunade's induction as the new Hokage," Sakura asked right out of the gate, so to speak; since Naruto, along with Jiraiya, had brought Tsunade in the first place his abscence did not go unnoticed by the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Good morning to you as well, Sakura-chan; if you must know the reason the judges from the Chunin Exams had finished rendering their decisions on who else would become chunin about five days ago," Naruto explained.

Unlike most shinobi whose promotions to chunin would take a month after the Exams to be confirmed Naruto's promotion had been decided immediately after his fight with Neji; when one considers the fact that he defeated Orochimaru during the second phase of the exams it's much easier for the judges to make their decisions even before the finals began.

Naruto's answer only confused Sakura even further if her expression was any indication so Naruto elaborated on his answer.

"Sasuke apparently gained the necessary votes to become a chunin; his promotion ceremony, which is the one you'll have to do once you become a chunin as well, just happened to be at the same time as Tsunade-hime's ceremony and, since Shikaku-san requested that I help with that ceremony, I had no choice but to miss the one for Tsunade. She already knew about that and said she understood so I didn't have to worry about any backlash from her," Naruto said, getting a nod from Sakura.

"I'm surprised by you, Naruto; you make it sound like you believe that Sakura will become a chunin," a familiar voice said.

Naruto and Sakura, who were facing the area in outside of the gate, turned around and saw that Sasuke (who was the one that had said that comment), Kakashi, and, to Sakura's surprise, Team Guy had just arrived. Naruto simply shrugged at Sasuke's comment.

"You and I both know that she has the potential; she just had realized enough of it yet," Naruto replied, to which Sasuke surprisingly nodded in agreement.

An even bigger surprise came from Sakura; instead of getting all excited over the acknowledgement from her crush she was more focused on the other team.

"Hold on Kakashi-sensei; why is Lee-san and his team here?" she asked to which Kakashi gave a light chuckle before he answered.

"That's a fair question, Sakura; this mission requires at least two squads to complete so Guy-san volunteered to work with us," Kakashi explained.

At this point Tenten entered the conversation.

"We wanted to repay Naruto for the things he's done for us. Guy-sensei and Lee wanted to help Naruto because of the time that Naruto saved Lee's life in the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams. Neji, though he refuses to admit, wanted to repay Naruto because he helped him overcome his belief in destiny and for helping him clear things up with Hinata-san and his uncle. I also owe him for the gift he gave me, and the training to help me use that gift, several days ago. When we heard that this mission would be done alongside your team we decided to give you guys a hand," Tenten explained while drawing Team 7's attention to a scroll on her hip when she mentioned her reasons for wanting to come on this mission.

Sakura was surprised when she saw the scroll read out the was labeled with the word Samehada, having recognized if as the name of one of the Seven Swords of the Hidden Mist. Shortly before the beginning of the Sakura had come across an old book in the Konoha Library (she was looking for information that might've helped her and her team prepare for the Chunin Exams) that talked about the seven blades; out of curiosity Sakura looked through that book, which had some information regarding the Executioner's Blade and Samehada as well as the other five swords. The pink-haired kunoichi, having heard a rumor that Naruto had killed another of the Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist during his mission to find Tsunade, assumed that Naruto had taken the man's blade (in this case Samehada) and, not having any real need for it, gave it to Tenten as she was primarly a weapons-user and would be able to put the sword to good use.

Sakura got out of her train of thought when Kakashi took control of the conversation.

"Now that Tenten has finished her little story I think it's time we headed out," Kakashi said nonchalantly before he and the rest of the group walked out the gates of Konoha and towards the location of their mission, unaware of the events that were about to unfold.

[Aka no Uzu (Red Whirlpool) Harbor, Eastern Coast of the Land of Fire]

_Two Weeks Later..._

Teams Kakashi/Seven and Guy, with their clients in tow, had finally reached the large port that was their final destination after several delays held the group up for a couple of days.

This mission, which was a C-Rank in it's classification, was not really as dangerous as it was annoying for the shinobi; the two team first arrived in a town several miles north form where the Great Naruto Bridge was located where the clients, a large merchant caravan, were waiting for them. After trekking through the southern Land of Fire, which was heavy bandit country, the shinobi finally got their clients safely to their destination without serious incident. The head of the caravan gave his thanks, paid the fee for the mission, and bid the shinobi farewell.

Naruto and the rest of the younger members of the two teams were now waiting for their senseis; Might Guy had gone to look for the nearest bathroom while Kakashi was simply late... again... with his squad unaware of his whereabouts.

As Naruto stood at the entrance to the town that grew out of the port, staring into the ether, he suddenly heard Neji's voice which appeared to be directed towards the Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman.

"Is your sensei always this late, Naruto-san?" Neji asked; since the end of the Chunin Exams Neji, who was trying to fix his relationship with Hinata and her father, and Naruto have improved their relationship by a great deal, allowing the two talk to each other in a much more casual manner.

"Oh no, Neji-san, it's never this bad... it's actually much, much worse; if I know him I think it's safe to assume that we'll be stuck here for at least a couple more hours," Naruto said, causing Neji to pinch the bridge of his nose upon hearing this.

Before Neji could say anything else, however, he and Naruto noticed that six large chakra signatures had suddenly approached an area near the town; what really caused the young shinobi to grow alarmed, however, was the dark and virtually identical nature of these chakras.

"Are you sensing these chakras, Naruto?" Sasuke asked his teammate, having seen the emanting chakra with his Sharingan, who simply nodded in response.

"You guys should go find Kakashi-sensei and Guy-sensei and tell them what's going on; I'll go on ahead and investigate this myself," Naruto said before he flash stepped to the location of the two chakras, not even bothering to give Sakura or anyone else a chance to protest his actions.

Upon realizing that Naruto had just left Sakura and the three members of Team Guy prepared to head in the same direction as her blond-haired teammate before Sasuke stopped them.

"As much as I hate to admit this I think it's best if we do what he says; at the level each of are at right now...(he sighs in reluctance) all of us would only get in his way," Sasuke said rather matter-of-factly which took Sakura surprise; even though Sasuke was still the same as far as his attitude was concerned the kunoichi did notice that her teammate/love interest was changing... she hadn't realize how fast he had actually changed, however, since the Chunin Exams.

Before anything else could be said, however, Kakashi and Guy finally arrived, having sensed the menacing chakras at the same time as their students did. Kakashi looked around before he said anything.

"I'm guessing that Naruto is already heading to where those two chakra signatures are coming from?" Kakashi asked the younger members of both squads.

After they answered in the affirmative both teams immediately headed towards Naruto's location; upon sensing a increase in Naruto's energy some of the members of the group to shudder as the memories of how he crushed Neji during the Finals of the Chunin Exams came crawling back into their minds. They realized that Naruto was about to do something drastic and that was something that scared his peers more than the two foes that the young Uzumaki appeared to be fighting. After all, as powerful as those two people are, they were completely outmatched by their blond-haired teammate...

_With Naruto..._

"So you're the jinchuriki of the Kyubi, Naruto Uzumaki... it appears you're going out of you way to interfere with our plans yet again," a man said to the young Uzumaki.

Naruto simply eyed the man who spoke to him as well as keeping tabs on who the chunin assumed was his partner which wasn't that difficult considering the fact that they stood out like a sore fuma shuriken.

The one who spoke was a tall man who had green, pupiless eyes with red sclera and tanned skin where it could be see as the man wore a white hood, a black face mask, a headband with the symbol of Takigakure scratched out and, of greater concern to the young shinobi, a black cloak with a red cloud pattern on it like the one Itachi and Kisame wore which left little doubt in Naruto's mind that he was part of the Akatsuki.

The man next to him wore the same Akatsuki cloak as he did but a lot more detals about his appearance could be discerned. The man had medium-length sliver hair and purple-colored eyes while, along with his cloak, he wore a shinobi headband, with the scratched off symbol of a village Naruto didn't recognize, around his neck along with an amulet that the chunin recognized as a Jashinist symbol. The man also wielded a red scythe, which was connected to a metal cable, whose head carried three blades that were placed one on top of the other; the blades got smaller from top to bottom with the top blade being the largest.

After a few moments of tense silence Naruto finally responds to the hooded man's comment.

"If the Akatsuki was willing to use it's 'Immortal Duo' as a couple of errand boys I have to assume it's an important errand. So of course I'm going to interfere... Kakuzu," Naruto said in a serious tone.

The eyes of the now named Kakuzu widened in shock at hearing this.

"_He knows who we are; does he know what we're capable of as well? No wonder Leader-sama told me and Hidan not to engage this Jinchuriki just yet,_" Kakuzu thought to himself as he eyed the very thing that got him and his partner into this mess: a small scroll that Naruto had placed in his right pocket that was partially sticking out of it.

In addition to taking the scroll had also disintergrated the contact that was carrying that scroll as proven by the ash pile that stood 50 yards away from the group, the man having made the fatal mistake of trying to fight the chunin; Kakuzu realized that this opponent was indeed as dangerous as Itachi had claimed and realized that fighting him for the scroll was a lost cause.

Unfortunately Kakuzu's partner, Hidan, did not take Itachi's warning to heart.

"WHO THE [expletive] ARE CALLING ERRAND BOYS, YOU SON OF A [expletive]? IN THE NAME OF JASHIN I'LL [expletive] KILL YOU!" Hidan roared as he began to charge at the Uzumaki as he had also forgotten that the Akatsuki needed the Jinchuriki alive as well as Pein's order to the Jashinist, and the rest of the Akstsuki for that matter, to avoid a confrontation with the young Uzumaki-Namikaze clansman at all costs.

Naruto simply unsheathed his blade as Hidan charged at him and, to Kakuzu's confusion gave himself a small cut on the palm of his right hand before aiming that palm at the crazed cultist.

"No, Hidan... no you won't," Naruto said rather calmly before he began to generate a large amount of orange reiryoku in his bloody hand, shocking the Jashinist.

"What the [expletive] is that attack, for [expletive] Jashin's sake?!" Hidan said to himself; Naruto simply smirked at the religious fanatic before he unleashed his attack.

"Gran Rey Cero!" Naruto yelled as he fired a beam of the orange-colored reiryoku.

The beam soon took the appearance of a flying razor blade as the sheer speed and power of the attack caused it to compress and decompress wildly. Hidan was taken aback by this attack and didn't try to dodge it until it was too late; the Jashinist was caught in the beam which began to glow shortly after overtaking him. A few seconds after that the cero exploded; as the explosion occured in the middle of a large forest it leveled a large number of trees and other natural features.

As the explosion subsided Naruto turned to face Kakuzu who was smart enough not to charge at the chunin head-on.

"Since I'm in a merciful mood today I'm going to suggest that you fall back if you want to live for now. And before you make your next move be aware of the fact that I know about your Earth Grudge Fear as well as the secrets behind it and, unlike the Jashin religion's techniques that make your dismembered partner immortal, I'm aware of the fact that you can still die regardless of that technique's power," Naruto said in a nonchalant manner; the chunin was well aware of the fact that Hidan had survived getting hit by his Gran Rey Cero but he also knew that the cultist was not going anywhere for a while.

Kakuzu's eyes narrowed at what was obviously an insult on Naruto's part before he finally took off; before the aged shinobi left to find his partner's "pieces", however, he left one final warning to the Uzumaki.

"You might've won this time, Uzumaki, but rest assured that it is only fleeting; we of the Akatsuki will capture one day and, when we do, I will take my time instilling terror into you," Kakuzu snarled before he retreated.

As soon as the former Taki-nin left Naruto simply smirked at the man's warning; he cold tell that, for all of the man's big talk, the so-called "Akatsuki Treasurer" had been shaken up this encounter and would probably not be bothering him for a while.

Naruto shook out of his train of thought when he felt the scroll that had been the cause of this entire incident nearly falling out of his pocket; the chunin took the scroll and opened it up; after a few more minutes of trying to break through the seals that safeguarded the contents of said scroll Naruto finally got to see why the contents of the scroll would compel the Akatsuki the send their "Immortal Duo" to retrieve it.

What Naruto found in that scroll took even him by surprise though he obviously didn't show it.

"_So they're trying to get her to join their ranks. Even though their chances of recruiting her are remote at best if they've already managed to find her... I need to get this information to Tsunade and fast,_" Naruto thought to himself just as the rest of his team arrived along with Team Guy; the young chunin realized the things were about to get difficult... for his team members at least...

[Unspecified Location in the Shinobi World]

_Meanwhile… _

At the mouth of a massive cave deep within an unknown mountain range a young woman stood outside as the sun began to set for the night. She appeared to be in her early twenties, and at least five and a half feet in height, with a slender figure and a fair skin tone. She had black hair that was long enough to reach her knees, though she held it in a ponytail that started below her midback, while the bangs that framed the sides of her face were long enough to go well below her collarbones; her hair went along well with her large black eyes whose piercing gaze would give a person the impression that she was trying to read their mind.

She wore a simple attire consisting of a form fitting grey shirt with long sleeves, black stretch pants, a blue sash ties around her waist that appeared to have some sort of metal plate stitched onto it; the metal could barely be seen, however, as it was covered by another blue cloth that as wrapped aroung the metal piece. In addition to her attire the woman also had what appeared to be a naginata as long as her slung onto her back.

As the woman, who was sittiing on the ground watching the sunset, she felt a light wind blow into her face.

"It appears something big is about to happen; it feels so different from the times before, however, so maybe I'll should stay put this time," the women mused to herself as she entered the cave to rest for the day.

Though she normally fled from wherever she was at this sudden sensation she decided not to do so this time; unbeknownst to her this decision to stay would lead to encounter she could never have imagined...

Next Time – The New Mission Begins

**A/N: I know the chapter feels like a filler in its content; considering the new arc, however, it had to be like this in order for the story of the arc to make sense.**


	26. 25 The New Mission Begins

**Chapter 25 – The New Mission Begins**

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Disclaimer: Still Applies

[Mission Assignment Room, Konoha]

_Several Days Later…_

Naruto returned to Konoha, along with the rest of his team and Team Guy, a few days ahead of schedule, despite the delays caused during their time escorting the caravan, and immediately made a beeline for the Hokage's (aka Tsunade) Office; they arrived at their destination just as Hiruzen, now the former Hokage (again), was about to exit the office. The old Sarutobi clansman, at both Naruto's and Kakashi's insistance, went back inside before Kakashi and Guy gave the mission report.

With that formality out of the way Tsunade finally addressed the group.

"I'm guessing you have more to say? Something important must've happened if you've asked Sarutobi-sensei to stay," Tsunade pointed out.

Naruto stepped towards Tsunade's desk before he placed the scroll that he took from the Akatsuki on said desk.

"I encountered two members of the Akatsuki; while they were able to escape I managed to take this from the contact they were meeting with. I've already seen what's inside and I'm sure that you'll see importance of its contents," Naruto explained rather vaguely as he made note of how quickly Tsunade had changed from being a hopeless gambler to a capable and learned leader since becoming Hokage.

"_I guess being in a leadership position really can cause people to change; never imagined it would occur this quickly with her, however,_" Naruto thought to himself as Tsunade opened the scroll with her sensei looking over her shoulder to see what was written on it.

When the two read what was in said scroll Tsunade almost dropped the scroll in shock.

"Are you sure that this information is accurate?" Tsunade asked after a few minutes.

Naruto nodded before he responded to the Sannin's question.

"The Akatsuki sent two of their most powerful members, such as they are, to retrieve that scroll; I doubt that they would do that for phony intel," Naruto pointed out.

At this point the rest of the group, minus Kakashi and Guy, were now even more confused than they were before they were forced to make a beeline for Konoha.

"What information? What's going on?" Sasuke asked; like the rest of the group the young Uchiha was getting tired of being left out of the loop, so to speak.

Naruto, knowing that this was going to come up eventually, finally decided to tell the rest of the group what they had discovered.

"The scroll contained the location of a former Konoha-nin that the Akatuski are trying to recruit into their ranks; the chances of that person joining are almost nonexistent at best but, considering who this person is, it's very important that we find her before the Akatsuki does," Naruto explained vaguely.

The rest of the Konoha 12, as the younger members of Teams, 7,8,10, and Guy were now known, had learned about the Akatsuki's efforts to capture Naruto and, more importantly, why they were doing so. Thankfully Naruto's peers were no where near as ignorant as the most of Konoha was before Naruto's return from Las Noches to begin with so they were unaffected by the recent revelation of their friend having Kurama sealed within him; if anything the revelation only made the rest of the Konoha 12 have more respect for Naruto as well as make them more determined to protect him from the Akatsuki even if he had the strength to protect himself. This was also the reason why Naruto could talk about the Akatsuki in front of his friends without having to explain to his peers who the rogues were.

Sasuke, Sakura, and the younger members of Team Guy were surprised to hear that the Akatsuki were already looking for a replacement for the guy Naruto had killed when he and Jiraiya; that shock was, naturally, then replaced by curiosity.

"Who is she? And why would the Akatsuki want to have her join their ranks?" Neji had asked.

Naruto sighed before he gave his friends the answer.

"Her name... is Kazuko Uchiha; she's a former Konoha kunoichi who has been considered MIA for almost 13 years," Naruto explained; he turned to face Sasuke whose eyes, as one could imagine, widened in shock even more than their other teammates. (A/N: Kazuko roughly means 'Peaceful Child')

"Uchiha? But... how?" Sasuke asked in a stutter. Naruto sighed at this.

"Did she survive? Like I said before she has been gone for almost thirteen; I can't really explain why she did except that after a certain... incident... between her and the rest of the Uchiha Clan that occurred sometime before Kurama attacked Konoha they falsely implicated her in a heinous crime which forced her to flee the village at the age of ten. After the Uchiha Clan was massacred several documents arose that proved her innocence; this would've allowed her to return to Konoha without any consequences... assuming she was ever found," Naruto explained as he made sure he didn't give out any information that he didn't have to reveal; after a few seconds Neji, who was still in the room, realized something.

"I get it; because she was forced to flee the village at that time she wasn't around when the Uchiha Massacre occurred which meant that she wasn't among those who had been killed that very night," the Hyuga prodigy reasoned; this got him an affirmative nod from Naruto.

Sakura, meanwhile, still had a question that had been bothering her since the beginning of Naruto's explanation.

"But if this Kazuko was forced to flee when she was only ten years old how was she able to survive all this time?" Sakura asked.

At this point Hiruzen entered the conversation.

"That's a fair question, Sakura, but to answer it in its entirety, however, would be to disclose some very sensitive information which I cannot do for now. I can tell you, however, that Kazuko was the strongest kunoichi produced by the Uchiha clan and is an even stronger shinobi than Itachi; from what remember of Kazuko she was also very wise and knowledgeable girl with her understanding of the world and wisdom having reached the level of a Hokage by the age of 6. In all honestly I would've been surprised if she **had not **survived for all this time," Hiruzen explained with a great deal of sadness in his voice.

Naruto realized how uncomfortable this topic was for the Sandaime and had to raise his spiritual pressure slightly just to prevent several of his peers from pressing the issue even further before he turned to Tsunade.

"Tsunade-san, since most of the jonin and chunins are currently unavailable due to them either going out to find intel on the Akatsuki or being needed here to secure Konoha is it safe to assume that we'll have to go and find her?" Naruto asked to which Tsunade closed her eyes as if she was deep in thought.

After a few moments of tense silence the Sannin opened said eyes and looked directly at Naruto.

"Not exactly; Kakashi and Guy are now needed elsewhere and since there's a risk that the a potential conflict Akatsuki might still occur I'm going to have to put you in charge of this situation, including the formation of a team for this mission. In addition you'll have to keep your Fracciones here in Konoha in order to deter any further infiltrations into the village," Tsunade declared, having learned about, and met with, Tiraran and Jango shortly after arriving in the village.

The Uzumaki sighed at this.

"If that's the case then I have to have the final say on who is to be on said team; am I understood?" Naruto requested.

After getting a affirmative response from Tsunade the young Naruto exited the room with the rest of Team 7 and Team Guy following his lead; the young Uzumaki then left the group to prepare for the new mission.

[Akatsuki Hideout]

_Meanwhile..._

Pein, upon receving word of Hidan and Kakuzu's return from their mission, called for all of the Akatsuki to convene at the hideout that they were in now; as opposed to their normal meetings, however, the entire organization was currently present in the flesh as opposed to the hologram-like apparition that some member would normally use.

Unfortunately for the Immortal Duo this meant that they were in the presence of their leader who was less than pleased when they gave their report of what happened.

"Let me see if got this correct... you're talling me that the jinchuriki of the Kyubi somehow managed to stumble into your meeting with the first contact, killed the man and took the intel on Kazuko Uchiha's location, and then proceeded to defeat Hidan with a single attack before he LET you both walk away with your lives?" Pein asked incredulously.

The figurehead leader of the Akatsuki was getting tired of this jinchuriki, a 13-year child no less, getting the better of the S-rank missing that have the misfortune of crossing paths with the Konoha-nin and was considering the possibility of confronting the boy himself. Only the orders from Madara Uchiha, who was the true leader of this organization, prevented the Village Head of Amegakure from making his move.

"Unfortunately Hidan refused to take heed to the warnings that Itachi gave to us before we headed out and when the boy managed to provoke my idiot of a partner he tried to attack the jinchuriki head on which lead to the rag doll that you see before you now," Kakuzu explained in a nonchalant manner getting a large vein to poke out of the aforementioned Jashinist's forehead.

"Who the [expletive] are you to [expletive] call me a [expletive] rag doll, Kakuzu?!" Hidan yelled in an irritated tone.

After getting hit by Naruto's Gran Rey Cero Hidan had lost both both of his arms as well his left leg in the ensuing explosion. Once Kakuzu finally found the rest of Hidan, after obviously taking his time to do so, Kakuzu created new limbs to replace the ones that were disintegrated by the young Uzumaki's attack hence why his limbs were now connected to his body with stiches; with his Akatsuki coat had been been heavily torn by the cero allowing the stitches on his arms to be visible to everyone else.

Before Hidan and Kakuzu could continue their argument Pein managed to get their focus to return to him.

"Since it's obvious we have no intel on Kazuko's location we have no other choice but to find a way to continue our plan with the manpower we have now," Pein declared solemnly.

Before anyone could question the Ame-nin's decision the Akatsuki's meeting was suddenly interrupted when two shadowy figures suddenly appeared from out of nowhere in the center of the hideout, taking the group by surprise.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Pein-san," one of the figures said in response...

[Aka no Uzu Harbor]

_Several Days Later..._

While the Akatsuki were busy trying to figure out what their next move would be Naruto had already formed his team and was already at the first major stop along the way to the location where Kazuko was supposedly located. For this mission Naruto had chosen Sasuke, Neji, to join him; in addition the Uzumaki was able to "persuade" Shikamaru, of all people. to complete his team despite the doubts of the other two. After gathering whatever provisions they needed the group arrived at the main gate where Naruto gave the group brief overview of their mission.

After that the group headed east towards the port where this entire situation started; not surprisingly Neji and Sasuke were surprised by this move on the part of Naruto.

"Why are we here again, Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto sighed as the group entered the port town.

"As I've already told you the information on the scroll clearly states that Kazuko is a certain location somewhere in the former Land of Whirlpools; as this is the closet port to that land this is the place where we're supposed to meet up with the boat that'll take us there tomorrow," Naruto explained, having told the group about the former nation that was now Kazuko's "home".

"In any case I think we should find a place to stay for the night; when we get on that boat tomorrow I'll give you guys the full rundown on what you can expect," Naruto continued as he and his team entered a small inn next to the harbor...

Next Time – Contact: The Worst Uchiha Reunion!


	27. 26 Contact: The Worst Uchiha Reunion!

**Chapter 26 – Contact: The Worst Uchiha Reunion!**

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Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Somewhere off the Land of Whirlpools Coast]

_Current Time…_

Naruto and his team were on a small motorized skiff heading to their destination; as the group of Konoha-nins waited on that boat Naruto decided to use that time to give the rundown of what his teammates should expect to deal with.

"Alright you guys; now that we're far enough from both coasts it's time I told you what we will be dealing with," Naruto began; after making sure that he had the full attention of the other three shinobi he pulled out a small scroll that he then opened it, revealing a map of the Land of Whirlpools which was comprised of one large island.

"This is the Land of Whirlpools as it stands now; I'm not going to bore you guys with a long lecture of the history of this place except to say that this country has had no real government since the collapse of the shinobi village that was once here, called Uzushiogakure, around twenty years ago. Basically it has become a lawless land and is a haven for those who need a place to disappear which is probably why Kazuko chose this place as her hideout. Based on the intel we acquired from the scroll she's located somewhere in the southern half of the island," Naruto explained.

This got Naruto a couple of raised eyebrows from his teammates.

"Southern half?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes; the intel states that she's clearly residing in the mountains in the southern half of the island. The Land of Whirlpools is basically an island made up of two parts. The northern half of the island is comprised of steep low-lying hills as well as the ruins of Uzushio while the southern half of the island is one giant mountain range, known as the Uzu no Sebone (Whirlpool Spine) with a few small villages scattered throughout the valleys; as the mountain range is filled caves and large underground passages, most of them deserted, it makes the area a perfect place to hide. Unfortunately that also means that we have a lot of ground of cover quickly," Naruto replied, pointing to corresponding parts of the map during his explanation.

At this point Neji entered the conversation.

"Naruto, you've told us about the place we're heading to; what about the dangers that we might encounter while looking for Kazuko?" Neji questioned.

"Well, for starters, there are several large, well-equipped, and very violent groups of bandits and missing-nin, some of whom are supposedly at the level of an elite jonin from one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, that reside in the Uzushio Ruins, which is the only real port on the island, and the surrounding hills. Beyond the ruins the wildlife on the island is full of many creatures, plant and animal, that could possibly make a meal out of us; this is true for the low lying hills and especially for the Uzu no Sebone. As far as the Sebone itself the mountains are even steeper than the smaller hills to the north and the terrain is very rugged, there are constant landslides that are so large that they can bury all Konoha if one ever happened there, the temperature outside of the valleys can sometimes go from scorching to freezing in an instant, the area is plagued by heavy blizzards and mudslides, and the caves and other underground areas are prone to collapse and massive gas explosions and contain various other underground hazards. Finally we have to consider the possibility that the Akatsuki may still acquire Kazuko's location through other methods which means that we may have to fight them at some point. It's not really that much to worry about," Naruto casually explained.

Due to his training Naruto could obviously handle these dangers with no difficulty so he didn't think much of these hazards... unlike his now gaping teammates.

"Are you serious, Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto simply nodded in response while Shikamaru sighed in exasperation at this.

"And this is what we have to deal with? This mission's going to be such a drag," Shikamaru groaned; he could already tell that this was going to be a very long mission.

[Uzushio Ruins, the Former Land of Whirlpools]

_Later in the Day..._

"We're not even here for a few hours and we've already had to fight five of these smaller gangs; I wonder if these thugs greet all visitors to this island like this," Neji said irritably as he and the rest of the group of Konoha-nin easily beat back another group of bandits.

"Would you guys quit it with your bitching already? We're already at the edge of the ruins anyways," Naruto retorted back as he pointed towards the steep hills that now stood before him and his team.

Shikamaru, in his usual lazy attitude, groaned at the sight of these hills.

"Great... now we get to the hard part. This is such-"

"If you so much as finish that sentence, Shikamaru, you'll wish that last bandit attack did you in," Naruto warned with a smile on his face.

Shikamaru paled in fear though whether or not it was because of Naruto's warning or his smile was anyone's guess.

"Anyways, we better get moving; it won't be long before every gang in these ruins decide to retaliate after our little display," Sasuke pointed out.

After Naruto and his team defeated another ten groups of bandits they finally got deep enough within the to where the bandits were nonexistent; unfirtunately for Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru this was just the beginning of their nightmare...

_A Few Weeks Later..._

To say that Naruto's teammates had a hard time surviving on this island was an understatement; it had been hell on earth for the three young shinobi. What really surprised them, however, was how Naruto shrugged off the dangers of this island like it was nothing to him.

The three Konoha-nin were now wondering whether or not Naruto really had been in Hell for seven years as they continue their search for Kazuko in the Uzu no Sebone.

"Neji, Sasuke, have you guys picked up anything yet?" Naruto asked as the group walked through a plateau as he could only detect a trail of what appeared to be residual chakra that may have been left by Kazuko with her Pesquisa.

Neji merely shook his head while Sasuke sighed.

"Nothing yet except that weird trail of residual chakra that we've been tracking for the past few days..." Sasuke began with a great deal of frustration in his voice.

Before Sasuke could say anything else, however, he looked over the edge of the plateau and, along with Neji and Naruto, was surprised to see that the trail led to a large cave and, unlike the other underground areas the trail led to, it didn't come out.

Sasuke smirked at this.

"...though it appears that's about to change real soon," Sasuke finished.

After another thirty minutes of trekking the team of young ninja finally reached the mouth of the cave and, as they had expected, the source of the residual chakra was clearly within the cave. It was also a very large source as the amount of chakra coming from the mystery person was massive, easily the level of a Kage.

Unfortunately while this made it more likely that it was Kazuko that dwelled within the cave it also meant that the person inside, whether it was Kazuko or not, inside could easily crush Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru should they chose to fight. While Naruto could easily defeat the person the terrain meant that if a member of Naruto's team got seriously hurt it would be next to impossible to get them help with any meaningful haste. Naruto knew that he had to proceed with extreme caution as he got his teammates together.

"Alright guys, listen up! There's someone inside if that cave who might be our objective; unfortunately the person is not only very strong but, based on what I saw with my Pesquisa, this person has detected our presence and is ready to ambush us once we come within their line of sight so we'll be entering according to our plan. Do you guys understand?" Naruto asked to which his teamates responded with a simple 'Yes' or a nod.

Naruto's plan, which he had explained to his team during their trek towards the cave was rather simple:

As Naruto was the strongest of the group he would enter the cave first and would counter the person's ambush and, if it was Kazuko, would try to reason with her. Sasuke and Shikamaru would be 20 yards behind Naruto in order to avoid having the two get caught in the initial scuffle after which they would provide the Uzumaki with support if needed; if the person was indeed their objective Sasuke would also go to Naruto's side after the initial scuffle with Kazuko in order to help convince her to return to Konoha peacefully if she was unwilling to do so. Finally Neji, due to the sensory capabilities of his Byakugan, would stay back at the mouth if the cave in order to detect any approching dangers; if something came that appeared to be above his level Neji was to enter the cave and warn the rest of the team.

Now that his teammates were ready Naruto slowly entered the cave after using his Pesquisa to detect any potential traps that the person might've set (thankfully Naruto didn't find any).

The mouth of the cave led to a long pitch-black corridor that reduced visibilty to near zero for the young Uzumaki, forcing him to proceed with extreme caution; after a few minutes of walking through the dark passageway Naruto saw the faint light of a fire right where the person was located several yards ahead of him.

After going back to Shikamaru and Sasuke to make sure that they waited until he had stopped the person's ambush before they made their move he silently walked into said chamber while keeping himself on high alert. Even with only a few small campfires that were spread about to light it up it was still clear that this chamber was massive; Naruto guessed that the cavern, which had a massive dome-like ceiling, was at least half of the size of the dome of Las Noches. Despite the chamber's size, however, Naruto didn't have to go too far inside as he was less than ten yards inside of the chamber before he detected some movement with his normal Pesquisa which he could use on the move unlike with his special variant.

As he had expected the person was hiding above the entryway to the chamber and was now about to attack him from behind. Naruto, who was too close to the person to block their attack in time with his sword, quickly turned around and held both of his arms up just in time to block what appeared to be the blade of a naginata with the gauntlets that came with his oufit.

After a few second of silence the mystery person, whose form was hidden by the darkness of the cavern (Naruto's own body prevented the light of the campfire in front of the cavern's entrance from revealing the person's physical features) wielding the staff/sword finally spoke.

"You're not bad, kid; that's the first time anyone's manage to block my first strike," the person said in what was clearly the voice of a young adult female.

Naruto simpy smirked as he pushed the attack back before he replied.

"There's a reason why I was tasked lead a team to find and bring you back to Konoha... Kazuko Uchiha," Naruto calmly stated as he stepped slightly to his right, allowing the light from the campfire to reveal Kazuko with her weapon poised for battle and her Sharingan activated.

Kazuko raised an eyebrow at this.

"Normally I would question the fact that Konoha would charge a young boy to come after me; in this case, however, I can see why they would send someone like you. The question I have... is why Konoha has sent you," Kazuko asked Naruto as she circled the young chunin from his left.

Naruto countered by circling to his right; Naruto found himself with the passageway to his back as he pulled out what appeared to be a letter from the right pocket of his pants.

"This is letter from Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage; as far as what the letter says I think it'll speak for itself," Naruto explained.

Kazuko blinked in surprise at this.

"Godaime? What happened to Minato-sama?" Kazuko asked.

"I guess you wouldn't know about what has been happening all this time, would you? Hmm... where to begin..."

Naruto gave the Uchiha a brief overview of the events that had occurred since Kazuko had left Konoha; this included both Kurama's attack on the village as well as the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Naruto was especially careful in how he explained the massacre to her; even though the clan was responsible for her exile they were still her family.

As luck would have it Kazuko wasn't too fond of her "family".

"It looks as though as though it finally happened; I had always known that our clan's hatred would catch up to it sooner or later. Anyways let me see that letter... ummm," Kazuko said.

Naruto quickly realized he had not introduced himself; he changed that little problem as he handed Kazuko the letter.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Uzumaki? So you're Minato-sama and Kushina-sama's son. That explains a lot," Kazuko said as she read at the letter.

After she finished reading the letter Kazuko sighed.

"Before I give you my answer to this letter may I ask you something else?" Kazuko questioned the young Uzumaki who simply nodded.

"Were there any survivors...?" Kazuko began to ask until she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps echoing from the passageway.

After a few seconds Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Neji appeared at the entrance to the corridor, with Kazuko eyeing the younger Uchiha in particular.

"I guess that answers my question," Kazuko said as Naruto turned to face his teammates.

"Naruto... the Akatsuki are heading this way," Sasuke said cryptically to which the young Uzumaki sighed.

"Already? They work fast. (turns to Kazuko) I think it would be for the best to leave this cavern now. You can give us your answer on whether or not you'll accept the pardon after we've dealt with the clowns outside," Naruto suggested.

"Lead the way," Kazuko said as she motioned towards the dark corridor.

Naruto, with both his team and Kazuko following close behind him, ran through the passageway to the exit; it took less than a minute of running through the corridor before the group finally reached the exit. The sight that greeted them was about what the young Uzumaki had expected.

There were four people standing in front of the group; two of them wore Akatsuki cloaks while the other two wore simple black hooded cloaks. Naruto took a good look at the assembled party.

Naruto only briefly took note of the ones with the Akatsuki: a man who hid himself behind some sort of hunched-back puppet with a tail-like appendage and another man with a somewhat effeminate appearance who wore his blonde hair in a way that, on Naruto's mind, made him look way too similar to Ino.

Naruto was much more concerned about the other two figures; in addition to their cloaks both figures wore masks. One wore a yellow-orange mask with unusual black markings while the other wore an orange spiral mask; the most unusual aspect of the masks, however, was the fact that they both only had one eyehole.

As Naruto narrowed his eyes at the two masked figures, particularly the one with the marked mask, Naruto also took note at Sasuke glaring at the two figures with his Sharingan active and a great deal of anger in his eyes.

Naruto sighed, realizing that this battle may be more challenging than the previous two weeks of the mission put together...

Next Time - The Masked Men

**Important A/N: I'll be out of country from July 10th until August 2nd; until I return both of my stories will be on TEMPORARY hiatus; do not ****fear, however, as I will return to writing chapters upon my return.**


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